


Fools called home

by w8less (SeeMeInTheShadows)



Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Haruno Sakura, BAMF Uchiha Sasuke, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto) Feels, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, Emotional Baggage, Fix-It, Gen, Good Uchiha Sasuke, Hurt/Comfort, Naruto and Sakura are best friends, Pre-Shippuden, Protective Uchiha Sasuke, Smart Uzumaki Naruto, Strong Haruno Sakura, Team as Family, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, he is not happy about that, naruto and sakura are idiots, sasuke gets the support system he deserves, sasuke kind of loves them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2019-06-07 11:36:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15218300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeeMeInTheShadows/pseuds/w8less
Summary: Sasuke supposed his assigned team could have been worse...he just doesn't know how. Naruto and Sakura, inseparable best friends with a penchant for pranking and an insatiable curiosity, seem to have a death wish (or at least end up in a lot of dangerous situations and don't seem to care) and are determined to drag him down with them.Or, where Sasuke spends so much energy trying to keep his teammates alive he accidentally forgets about revenge.





	1. Tanzaku-gai

Iruka was already in the classroom when Sasuke walked in, and he could immediately sense the tension in the older man. His shoulders were rigid, his eyebrows furrowed, and he was staring at the door, as if waiting for something. It didn’t affect Sasuke, but as the rest of the students filtered in, his eyes flickered between the door and Iruka, idly trying to figure out what Iruka was waiting for.

The answer came right before class was set to begin. Sakura and Naruto walked in, side by side and having some seemingly innocuous conversation, something about ramen. Overall, not out of the ordinary, except for the fact that Iruka tensed even more and stood, slowly walking over to them.

Sakura and Naruto, to their credit, seemed to realize they were the target of the teacher, and Sakura threw her hand over Naruto’s mouth before he could escalate the situation. “Is there a problem, Iruka-Sensei?” she asked sweetly.

Iruka was calm, and that’s how Sasuke knew that whatever the problem was, it was big. Iruka was a kind teacher, but never failed to display his disappointment…or his anger. This dangerously calm demeanor meant he was truly angry; and not for the first time Sasuke understood why he had been assigned to train the future genin of the Leaf.

Naruto and Sakura seemed to know this and both visibly gulped. 

“Sakura. Naruto,” Iruka said evenly. “I was working at the mission desk this weekend, when I read an interesting report from a team who had just travelled through Tanzaku-gai. And how they had found two known Konoha academy students wandering around the town. Would you like to tell me what you were doing there?”

Sakura’s hand was still over Naruto’s mouth and she smiled sweetly. “Iruka-Sensei, they must have made a mistake. There’s no way we could have made it all the way to Tanzaku-gai and back over the weekend, and plus it’s much too dangerous! Maybe it was someone who just looked like us and they made a mistake?”

Iruka raised an eyebrow. “Good theory Sakura, it would hold more evidence if one of our best sensor-nin wasn’t on the team. Chakra isn’t so easily manipulated. Let me rephrase the question: tell me what you and Naruto were doing there.”

Naruto grabbed Sakura’s hand off his mouth and shouted, “maybe in was enemy Iwa-nin who wanted to spy on the fire country and they were able to pretend to be me and Sakura-chan and he fooled our ninja!”

Sakura sighed at Naruto’s outburst but then levelled her gaze at Iruka and grinned broadly. Sasuke personally thought it looked like a shark that had found easy prey. “Why does it even matter? According to the current addition of the Konoha Procedure handbook, Tanzuka-gai is considered well-within the zone of travel for civilians.”

“But you aren’t civilians, you’re academy students,” Iruka countered, “which means I’m in charge.”

Sakura’s grin grew wider. “I mean, it doesn’t change the fact that we weren’t there, but I think that if you were to look, you would find a loophole, sensei. Once registered for the final graduation exam, as of a week before the exam, we aren’t considered academy students, we’re Genin Applicant, which falls under civilian!”

Iruka opened his mouth and then shut it again, glaring at Naruto and Sakura who were both grinning. “Sit down, you two,” was all he could say, and Naruto and Sakura gave each other a small high five before sliding into their usual two seats in the front row. 

The class mumbled to themselves as Iruka, walked back to his desk and waited for the last few students came in.

“What were you even doing in Tanzaku-gai,” Ino loudly asked Sakura. “I thought you were joking when you said that’s where you were going this weekend.”

“Sad you refused?” Sakura asked.

“Huh, no way,” Ino said. “Like you’d ever catch me in a cesspool like that. I’ve heard enough stories, and I enjoyed my weekend without getting thrown up on. Gross!”

Sakura seemed to have no good comeback to that, but was saved by Iruka officially starting class, though he still took several chances to level Naruto and Sakura with a fiery glare.

-

The next morning, the village woke up to the great stone faces covered in paint, and while he couldn’t prove Naruto and Sakura did it, Iruka still sent them evil looks throughout the day and made them clean it in the afternoon. 

(Sasuke walked past Ichiraku Ramen on his way home from training, and saw the three of them huddled under the bright lights, so he assumed that all was forgiven between the three, and as they laughed he walked home quicker.

-

Here is what Sasuke knows about Sakura Haruno. She is intelligent. And curious- she always asks the most questions in class and always writes down the answers. In fact she writes down a lot more than just answers- she keeps a notebook in her pouch and a will pull it out and jot notes down fairly regularly. She was quiet before she became friends with Naruto, and even now is quieter than he is (not that that’s hard) and if Sasuke had to guess, she’s the common-sense behind their operation. She shouts shannaro a lot and he isn’t quite sure what it’s supposed to mean.

And Naruto Uzamaki. Is an idiot, but seems to think more since Sakura came along. Loves pranking and in general causing as much mayhem as possible. Talks too loudly and too much. No one really likes him except Sakura and Iruka. Sasuke used to think they had a connection, they both understood loneliness. And then Sakura came along (Sasuke kind of resents her for it). Also shouts nonsense at every given opportunity. 

They’re supposed to be his teammates, and Sasuke supposed he could have gotten a worse group to be assigned to, he just can’t think what that group could have been. He almost couldn’t hear his name, they cheered so loudly when it was revealed they’d be on the same team. 

They seem to welcome him though, even if Naruto seems a bit bitter about it. They force him to eat lunch with them, and briefly go over some of the code words and hand signs they’ve worked out through the years, though Sasuke can tell they’ve only given him a fraction of their codes. Something tells him that they don’t trust him, or really think that he belongs (and part of him has to admit that they’re right). He tells himself that he doesn’t care about that.

-_-_-_-

When Kakashi-Sensei explained the test to them, Sakura didn’t object, instead her eyebrows furrowed and she bit her lip, obviously confused by something. Sasuke couldn’t blame her; their teacher didn’t seem like much, but he was a jonin for a reason. She let Naruto yell at Kakashi, but grabbed him before he could attack, and the second Kakashi began the test, she kept her hold of him as they ran away.

Sasuke didn’t know where they went, as he was too busy hiding himself to come up with a plan against Kakashi-sensei. 

It didn’t end well. In fact it ended up with him buried up to his neck, so maybe he shouldn’t have been upset when Naruto and Sakura found him. Naruto took one look at him and began laughing hysterically until Sakura hit him to shut him up. 

She then walked over and knelt next to him, looking at the earth he was buried in. “The sensei is tricking us,” she said. “I’ve read the Konoha Procedure Handbook cover to cover. Well the parts I had clearance for, at least. We knew that there would be a final test, and the sensei technically doesn’t have to pass everyone, but there’s no way they could make a test to specifically only pass two genin. ‘The ideal genin team consists of three genin under one jounin, which has been found to allow the maximum diversity of skill, as well as allows for a foundation of teamwork and village pride.’ “

Naruto nodded fervently as Sakura spoke. “Yeah, and when Sakura-chan told me this, I realized that he was trying to trick us, so we decided that we had to figure out what Kakashi-Sensei actually wants us to do! I said we didn’t need your help though.”

Sakura sighed, “he’s on our team now, Naruto. He can help us find out what the real mission is.” She stood up. But first we have to get him out. I think I can substitute with him- I’m smaller so I should be able to have an easier time getting out.”

Naruto glared at Sasuke, muttered something about him wasting Sakura’s chakra, and folded his arms. Sasuke glared back as Sakura performed the substitution technique with Sasuke. Suddenly, he was in Sakura’s place and she was pulling himself out of the ground and wiping the dirt of her clothes. “Let’s get out of here and go somewhere to figure this out.”

Sasuke didn’t want to listen to the two, but Sakura had argued policy with Iruka-Sensei himself just days before and he would assume that if anyone could recognize a trick, Konoha’s main prankster would be a good choice. So he followed them into the village proper, and slipped into a small restaurant behind them.

They ordered tea- warry of eating after the warning Kakashi had given them. None of them knew what the rest of the day would entail. “So our first mission as a team,” Sakura said. “Find out what our test actually is and pass it.”

“We should go over what we know, first,” Sasuke said. “Kakashi-sensei had said we would have a survival exercise, but what we underwent was mostly us chasing him down.”

Naruto nodded. “That’s right. He just sat around reading his stupid book, more than anything!”

“He set a time limit at noon,” Sakura pointed out. “So we should definitely try to figure it out before that. Hmmm…and I’m sure there’s a reason for the bells. I mean he had two of them to lead us on the right path, but maybe he means something else? Why bells.”

“He obviously also knew that you had read the handbook,” Sasuke pointed out. “Or at the very least he expected one of us to have done so, or know the policies of the village. But after what you and Naruto did, going to Tanzaku-gai, Iruka had probably told him.”

Naruto’s eyes suddenly widened. “Bells,” he said quietly to himself, then turned to Sakura. “If Kakashi-sensai knows we went out town then…remember the shrine with the two bells between here and that outpost town?”

Sakura’s hair whipped at she turned to Naruto. “I remember you knocking them over, even though I warned you that you would get us cursed! But you’re right!” She turned to Sasuke. “It isn’t fair from here. Otafuku Town. I think the shrine was maybe five or six kilometers, maybe a little more. She eyed the clock. “We could definitely get there by noon, but it’d be close and we’d have to leave now.” Her hand slammed down on the table. “Let’s go!”

_-_-_-_

Kakashi had noticed that the three had joined together and disappeared and smirked under his mask. Maybe they actually understood the purpose of the test.

Either way, he would let them plot, wait for their attack to see what they could do. They wouldn’t be able to beat him, but he would let them have the advantage of surprise. And so he returned to his book and waited.

_-_-_-_

The three genin (Applicant Genin still, Sakura had pointed out. They weren’t genin until they passed the sensei’s test) raced towards the shrine. They were panting, and Sasuke honestly didn’t believe he had ever run faster in his life, and from the looks of it, neither had Naruto and Sakura, but they arrived at the shrine two minutes before noon.

“We made it,” Naruto panted. “Now what?”

Sakura herself was panting, wiping her forehead. “Well I don’t think Kakashi is here, but he most have some way of telling whether or not we got here. Or maybe…he wants us to figure it out. It’s a survival exercise right? What are we supposed to be surviving? We aren’t in a forest or anything.” 

At that moment, a travelling caravan of merchants walked past. They eyed the three (applicant) genin warily, their gaze sticking on each of their forehead protectors, before they continued on their way down the road.”

“It’s exactly noon,” Sakura whispered to the two boys. “You don’t think that was a sign, do you?”

“Check out the man sitting on the wagon,” Sasuke whispered back. The man on the wagon seemed to be relaxing for a bit, taking advantage of the mules as he read a book. A very familiar, orange book. “We didn’t even think that the book was a clue.”

“Follow them?” Naruto asked.

“Follow them,” Sakura agreed.

Before the two headed off, Sasuke grabbed each of them by the shoulder. “We should transform, to maintain our cover.”

And so, a few minutes later, three normal-looking teenagers, each with brown hair and eyes and ratty clothes, walked out of the shrine.

_-_-_-_

The cover they had come up with on the spot, was that of three siblings, on the wy to the gambling towns and hot springs on the road ahead. They stayed a ways back as the caravan slipped through the outpost town, but listened for signs of where they were heading.

It was Naruto who figured it out. He had used his sexy jutsu to pretend to be one of the many woman of the town looking for clients, and as he approached he had heard them mention their end goal.

“Crater Town,” he told Sakura and Sasuke when they met up at the other edge of the town. “That isn’t super far from here. Maybe an hour or so. Should we go?”

Sasuke nodded. “I don’t think they are our targets, I think they’re just the clues. Kakashi probably knew their itinerary and they offered to help. I’m sure any merchants would love to help a jonin, just for the connections. 

_-_-_-_

As they raced to Crater Town, Sasuke was beginning to have some doubts. The more he thought, the more he could justify that Kakashi-Sensei had definitely been hiding something, that there was definitely more to the bell test than had met the eye. But…it didn’t seem likely that a jonin instructor would send potential genin this far out of the village. He tried to argue the point with Naruto and Sakura as they ran, but Naruto had shouted at him and Sakura hadn’t done much to back him up.

At this point, anger was pulsing through Sasuke’s veins. He knew that they were in the wrong track, and he couldn’t believe that Naruto and Sakura had been able to convince him to travel this far from the village for really no reason. Worse, they had likely ruined any chance he had of becoming a genin.

He stopped. They were on the outskirts of Crater City, and suddenly everything seemed so idiotic. “This is ridiculous. There is no way this is what Kakashi had in mind. I’m going to go back to the village and find out what his test really was.”

“You can’t!” Sakura screeched. “We have to pass as a team.”

“Then come back to the village with me,” Sasuke replied evenly. 

“No way, you jerk!” Naruto shouted. “We’re so close to Crater Town, and we’re going to pass the test. I bet Sensei is already there, waiting for us.”

“I’m going to go back and make Kakashi take me on. I won’t argue on your behalf. You can come with me, or you can stay as a genin for another year. It’s your choice.” And Sasuke turned around and walked away from them, ignoring their shouts, until finally they continued their journey towards Crater City.

_-_-_-_

It was maybe a half hour later, when he heard footsteps racing behind him. He turned, to see the pink blur that was Sakura. “Sasuke,” she shouted. “You have to help. Naruto and I ran into a man, and he’s definitely too strong for us!”

Sasuke paused. “You’re both genin. You should be able to handle some civilian.”

“I’m trying,” Sakura shot back, and her voice was venomous. “The man though, he’s at least a chunin and I think his assistant is too, he says he’s known as the Legendary Dark Shinobi, and he’s no pushover! Please, I think we need your help and Naruto is too stubborn to ask, but he’s already injured and I don’t have much chakra left.”

Sasuke sighed but turned around and sped back towards Crater Town. If the idiot was going to get himself captured by a chunin-turned-civilian, that wasn’t necessarily his responsibility. But he couldn’t let the idiot embarrass the entire village, and at least now he could say he went along with their stupid plan to make sure they didn’t get themselves killed. It wouldn’t work if they actually did get themselves killed, though.

(He didn’t realize that this would soon become a common theme in his life)

“Thanks Sasuke,” Sakura said, and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. A shadow clone. When had Sakura learned that? Either way, he arrived at the village ten minutes later and found a large crowd of people.

Naruto’s arms were being held by a bald man in a suit, and though he was doing his best to kick the man and break free, a kunai was buried in his shoulder and he seemed to be slowing down. There was a lot of blood, and in the back of Sasuke’s mind he wondered if the man had nicked an artery or something.

Sakura (he assumed this was the real one), on the other hand, was facing a man with a skinny face and dark hair. She was…holding her own, if not gaining any ground. He could tell that she was tiring, her clone was right, she definitely was almost out of chakra.

Well, his first order of business was going to free Naruto. The man was holding onto his arms, literally tying his own hands up as much as he was tying Naruto’s up, and Sasuke smirked. He may be stronger than they were, but he sure wasn’t smarter. Without declaring his presence, Sasuke leapt towards the man and delivered a kick to the face, forcing him to release Naruto.

Naruto, to his credit, was bleeding but not done. Upon his arms being released, he pulled his hands into a hand sign and summoned four shadow clones- Naruto knew the jutsu too? Half rushed towards the bald man while the other half rushed to aid Sakura. Sasuke smirked, and helped the Naruto clones deliver an onslaught of kicks and punches to the bald man, until he was out cold, before turning his attention to the other man.

With the clones’ help, Sakura was gaining ground again, but before Sasuke and the original Naruto could reach her to provide more cover, the man’s hand quickly flew through several seals before suddenly they were in darkness.

Sakura’s clone had told him that he had a name. The Legendary Dark Shinobi. And he hadn’t thought much about it. But now…he couldn’t see anything at all.

Sasuke had felt hopeless before, but it had been a long time. He wasn’t sure if he felt hopeless now, but the lack of being able to see was something he had never anticipated. He was an Uchiha- son of the clan head, no less. The Sharingan was his birthright, and though he hadn’t unlocked it yet, he knew the power was there, humming under his eyes.

He had always had his eyes.

And now he didn’t. 

The ninja he was facing seemed to have had no problem with his own jutsu which was not surprising. And Sasuke couldn’t tell the punch was coming until it hit him square in the stomach. He heaved.

“Ah, look at the baby genin,” the man taunted them. “Is this your first real fight? I had killed by your age, but you won’t have the chance.”

Suddenly, Sasuke felt a minor chakra explosion and hew as dimly aware of the presence of…well it seemed like dozens of more people. And then they started talking. In Naruto’s voice. And his. And Sakura’s.

He couldn’t be certain, but it sounded like, Naruto had created more shadow clones, and transformed many of them into Sakura and Sasuke. A diversion. Smart, no doubt Sakura’s plan. It seemed to do the trick, and distract the ninja, and a soft hand grabbed Sasuke’s.

“It’s an area jutsu,” she said to him. “So if we can leave the boundary of it, we’ll be able to see again. Then we can direct Naruto’s clones while providing cover with kunai and shuriken.”

Sasuke nodded and she led them in a random direction. It didn’t take long until they were suddenly blinded by the reemergence of sunlight. Where a crowd had been, it was now empty, the people scattering most likely when the darkness jutsu took place. 

He could see the crowd of clones- and he was right in the fact they transformed to look like him and Sakura, but wrong in the sheer number he assumed Naruto had summoned. It seemed like there were hundreds of them. How?

Naruto squinted his eyes. “The problem is, we’re so far away that it’s hard to see what he’s going to do now, I don’t know if we can let the clones know what to do fast enough.”

Sasuke looked at the fight and smirked. “I can see just fine. I’ll tell them what to do.” And that’s what he did. He was able to focus on the man, and shout directions. And to his surprise, it worked. Naruto’s clones seemed to understand his meaning with the slightest prompting, and listened without the doubt he had expected. Slowly but surely, they slowed the ninja down, until he was unable to maintain the jutsu. After the Naruto clones recovered from the onslaught of light, they grinned and launched into full attacks and the battle was soon over.

Sakura had run to properly secure the ninja’s companion, then secured the first ninja. She wiped the sweat off her brow and smiled. “Our first mission as a team,” she shouted. “I’d say it was a success!”

“Not quite.”

All three turned to see Kakashi-Sensei walk across the empty plaza where the battle had taken place. “I think you misunderstood my instructions. The goal was to capture the two bells, not two missing nin from Iwa.”

“We just followed your clues, Sensei,” Sakura said. “The bells were never really the test, they were just a distraction, weren’t they?”

Kakashi sighed. “You’re correct. The purpose of the test was never the bells, but to see if you could work as a team for the greater good of the mission. Not run away to fight missing-nin. Stilll, your teamwork was impressive, so I guess that counts as a pass.” His one visible eye was closed, Kakashi’s version of a smile, apparently. 

“Yes!” Naruto and Sakura shouted. Naruto turned to Sasuke and smirked. “See, I told you that you had to stick with us to pass the test! You would have failed if it weren’t for Sakura and me. Who’s the idiot now, Idiot.”

Sasuke glared, but a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Something told him arguing wasn’t worth it, not over this.

And thus, Team Seven was formed.


	2. The Forest of Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training begins: with or without Kakashi's help.

Naruto was the one who snapped first, which wasn’t a surprise, though he had held out longer than Sasuke had expected. Sakura was perfectly content to read and Sasuke didn’t care much what they did. Naruto had entertained himself the first few days, setting traps with Sakura’s help, but unlike the day of the team assignments, Kakashi dodged each one with ease and so they had given up. 

Naruto would never have the patience of Sasuke or Sakura. So, the eighth day Kakashi was late by hours, Naruto started yelling. His rant was long, and the point got lost a few times, but it ended with, “and if you’re going to be late every day, we’re just going to train ourselves! We’re ninja and we have to take this seriously, you know!”

Kakashi had closed his eye (smiled?) and said, “that sounds good, Naruto. But let’s not waste anymore time. We have lots of missions to do, and unfortunately all the good ones have probably been taken.”

The next morning, when Sasuke arrived, Naruto and Sakura were already at work. Kunai and shuriken were scattered on the ground where they usually waited, and the two were currently off to the side near trees. A pile of scrolls was sitting next to their bag. Sasuke walked over.

Naruto was laying down against a tree trunk, looking like he had been personally wronged by it. Sakura was in a high tree branch, and hopped down when she saw Sasuke had arrived. “Sasuke!” she said. “Yesterday, I bugged Kakashi to give us some techniques to work on. Naruto and I got here early to get a good start. We’ve been working on this one.” She pointed to the unfurled scroll on top of the others. “It’s a chakra exercise to help you walk up trees. See, watch!”

She walked over to the tree she had just been in and slowly started walking vertically up the trunk. “It’s really fun,” she said.

Naruto seemed to object but she shushed him. “I bet you’ll be great!”

Sasuke grunted but read over the scroll and walked over to a tree. Slowly, he channeled his chakra to his feet, ran up the tree and almost immediately blew off of it. Obviously it was not as easy as Sakura made it look, and while it galled him to be worse at something than her, it paled in comparison to the fact that he was barely more successful than Naruto.

Naruto seemed to sense this, and the next several mornings became a race to see who could master tree walking first. Sakura, who was not part of their competition (because it had taken her approximately an hour to completely master) had found a thick branch in one of the trees that became her perch. She would watch Naruto and Sasuke and shout down encouragement and tips. 

It was annoying, but mostly because her advice was actually helpful.

Meanwhile, she practiced some finer aspects of chakra control and strength training while on her branch. He would look over occasionally to see her doing pull ups or practicing handstands on the branch. By the time he and Naruto could make it to the top of the tree, she was able to walk up it by channeling chakra into her hands, somehow keeping her body perfectly straight, parallel to the ground.

Kakashi never made any mention that he saw their morning practices, but once Sasuke and Naruto had mastered the technique, he wordlessly handed them another scroll after their daily mission and then disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Eagerly, Naruto opened the scroll. “Water walking,” he read and grinned. “That sounds so cool!”

Sakura grabbed the scroll and looked over it. “There isn’t a ton of water at this site,” she muttered. “We’ll need to find another place to work.” Her face brightened as an idea came to her. “Hey, I think we’ve earned a break after all these stupid missions. Let’s meet at the hot springs tomorrow!”

Sasuke didn’t particularly want to go to the hot springs, but Sakura had the scroll and some of her advice for tree climbing had been useful, so he nodded in agreement and met with them outside the baths the next morning. 

It wasn’t successful.

Well, Sakura took to it like a fish took to water- or more specifically a land animal took to land. But the steam from the hot water combined with the early morning seemed to make her sleepy so it didn’t take her long to start trying to see if her control was good enough to take a nap. It was…impressive because she could almost fall asleep on top of the water, but once she fully drifted off she began sinking and Sasuke had to try to pull her up (which wasn’t easy since his water walking was still very wobbly).

Meanwhile, Naruto did not seem to flourish in such a public spot. Every time a villager would look at him (and why did all those looks seem like glares?) he would seem to regress and fall in with a large splash. The problem was, the area around the hot springs became steadily more crowded and while he had made some progress at the beginning of the morning, now he could barely take one step into the water without falling. 

Sasuke himself had problems with both the steam and the villagers. While the steam didn’t make him want to take a nap, it did lull him and he could tell he was not as sharp as he usually was while training. Meanwhile, several people had taken it upon themselves to shout unwelcome encouragement or ask if they could pay his way into the baths.

It reached a tipping point when some of the girls in their academy class walked past. “Sasuke,” one of them said. “You don’t need to hang out with those two losers, come relax with us.”

Naruto fell into the water and the girl took the opportunity to scowl at him. “What do you think, Sasuke?”

“We’re training,” Sasuke said slowly and turned around to ignore them.

A few more minutes of failed attempts, they sat on the side of the water. “Okay,” Sakura started, “the hot springs was a bad idea. We’ll have to find a new place to try working on this tomorrow. Hopefully a training ground where civilians can’t come.”

Naruto nodded furiously, caught sight of someone starting at him, and immediately tumbled into the water, splashing both Sasuke and Sakura. 

“Yeah,” Sasuke agreed, “since the dead last can’t handle the slightest pressure.”

“Hey! Just because-“

“Stop it!” Sakura shouted before Naruto could continue the argument. “I’ll ask Kakashi-sensei for a good training ground where we can practice. Meanwhile, it’s almost time for him to maybe show up.”

Naruto perked up. “Race you guys to the training ground!” he shouted, and took off. Sakura groaned but ran after him, and Sasuke was already on his heels. There was no way he’d let the loser beat him. The only problem was that it was really hard to outrun Naruto. The kid was fast, when he set his mind to it, and by the time Sasuke finally got close to their training grounds, Naruto was well ahead and calling out insults.

For once, Kakashi must have been waiting for them because almost exactly when Sakura arrived, he showed up. The three genin were panting but he seemed to pay that no mind. “You guys look awfully damp today,” he said casually. “I hope you don’t catch anything, missions still have to go on. They’re very important to the village.”

“We need a new training spot,” Sakura said. And then: “And come on, I know babysitting a merchant’s bird isn’t crucial the village!”

“Yeah!” Naruto agreed. “Somewhere cool where we can practice are moves in secret!”

Sakura sighed. “What’s a good training ground we could use?”

“Well,” Kakashi said slowly. “There are lots of good training grounds.”

“What would you recommend, Sensei.”

Kakashi pulled out his book and idly flipped through the pages. “Well they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I can’t tell you which training ground is the best for your needs.”

“We’ll figure it out ourselves,” Sasuke snapped and Kakashi beamed. 

Sure enough, the next day Sakura came to their usual meeting spot, carrying a large book with multiple sheets sticking out from it at odd angles. Her mouth was set, obviously angry with Kakashi for making such actions necessary.

“There are,” she said, plopping the book down on the grass between Sasuke and Naruto, “over two hundred current training grounds in Konaha. And a ton of retired ones. Something has got to fit our needs. I got this book out from the records office. It has each training ground listed, renovations it’s underwent, a short description, notable incidents, and reservations. We’ve got to find something in it?”

“They let you take that out?” Sasuke asked and immediately wished he hadn’t.

“Of course not,” Sakura said. “But they have better things to worry about than last year’s copy of the training ground books. Plus, anything important has already been redacted.” She flipped it open and thumbed to the back, presumably where the higher level training grounds were, only for large chunks of words to be blacked out. 

“Wow!” Naruto said and grabbed the book. “These training grounds look cool!”

“Idiot, you can’t even read half of the words.”

Naruto stuck his tongue out. And continued looking through the book. “But the half I can read are awesome! Ooooh oooh, look at this one. Look at all the deaths listed! We should go here! But it doesn’t say where it is…”

“Let’s avoid the grounds with the huge deaths lists. For now,” Sakura said. “Also, that’s an anbu training ground, I doubt we’d be allowed there in the middle of the day.”

“Well, what are we waiting for, let’s pick one and get training!”

“Hold on, doofus,” Sasuke sighed. “If we can find the best training ground we’ll get the most out of training. It’s worth it to take some time and come up with a plan, not that an idiot like you would understand.”

Naruto growled and leapt over to where Sasuke was sitting, tackling him to the ground. Meanwhile, Sakura slowly went through the book, making several notes on a separate sheet of paper. By the time Naruto and Sasuke had finished their impromptu fight, she handed a paper to each of them.

“Here’s the list I came up with for the top five training grounds to practice water walking. They’re also the ones that sound like they could be the most useful for general training. I figured we could try one each day, and then decide on the one we like the best.”

Sasuke nodded, and looked at the list. Sakura’s handwriting was clear, and she had listed off the number of the training ground, as well as approximate locations and a brief description. “Training grounds 16, 39, 46, 49, and 70,” he said. “So sixteen first, right?”

“Race you guys there,” Naruto shouted, only this time he sprinted in the wrong direction. 

Sakura giggled and turned to Sasuke. “Well, we better go. It’d be really embarrassing if he still managed to beat us.” And as much as Sasuke wanted to scoff at that, Naruto was fast and there’s no way he’d let himself lose again to the other boy.

Konoha’s training grounds were more diverse than Sasuke had originally anticipated. He had expected grounds similar to where they usually trained, maybe with more trees or targets and a small lake or river to practice on. 

This…was not that. Training Ground Sixteen was a large natural pool, easily the size of several of the houses on the Uchiha compound put together. On all sides around it, steep walls rose up and a waterfall rushed into it on one side. It kind of reminded him of Crater City, if Crater City had flooded. Along the edges there were alcoves that looked they had been carved out to offer rest to any ninja who needed a break from training (or anyone who wanted to rest after swimming, this training ground in particular was open to civilians so long as they didn’t get in the way of any ninja practicing. Sasuke thought that was ridiculous- a civilian could get into the training ground but he didn’t think anyone but a ninja could get out). 

“They try to mimic as many environments as they can,” Sakura unwelcomely explained to him. “I figured that while you and Naruto practiced water walking, I could practice waterfall walking!”

That definitely wasn’t a thing, but he wasn’t going to bother trying to explain that to her. Instead, he walked down the cliff into the basin and began to practice. 

Naruto showed up shortly afterwards, twigs and leaves stuck in his hair- Sasuke didn’t ask, honestly he didn’t want to know. The three practiced their respective chakra control exercise, and slowly he and Naruto were able to stand on the water for longer and longer. He still had to focus, so it wouldn’t be useful in a fight yet, but after a few more days of practice he was sure would improve.

Sakura, it turned out, was able to walk up a water fall, much to Sasuke’s chagrin and when Kakashi finally appeared to see their progress, his eyes widened slightly. “I see you are all working hard,” Kakashi said lightly, in the tone that Sasuke recognized by now as ‘I’m about to get so much enjoyment at your expense’. “Good, we have a mission.”

The mission was walking dogs and, more importantly, cleaning up after them. Sasuke was still scowling when he met Naruto and Sakura the next morning to walk to Training Ground 39. 

Admittedly, when they arrived it didn’t look like much. A small stream slowly drained into a hole that was a few feet wide and vanished. The rest of the area was dry. Sakura motioned them to the hole itself and Sasuke felt his eyes widen. The water was draining into a roaring underground river. “It’s supposed to be good practice for switching between different surfaces,” Sakura muttered as she jumped down the hole, landing on the water. Quickly, she leapt from the water to the celling of the chamber, jumping between the stalactites until she flipped off one to land back on the water. Grinning, she looked up at them. “It’s fun. Plus a lot of training grounds are in caves, so this will be good practice for that!”

It was enjoyable, Sasuke thought. Alternating between using his chakra on a solid surface and water was more jarring than he imagined it would be, but by the time Kakashi Sensei found them, he didn’t have to focus just to stand on water anymore.

He smirked; this beat waiting for Kakashi for hours at the training ground. He watched as Kakashi absentmindedly gave some advice to Naruto. It almost felt like they had been playing in to Kakashi’s hand all along. And maybe they had, he didn’t mind. 

-_-_-_-

“I thought you said this was a genin-training ground,” grunted Sasuke as he aimed a kick at the grasshopper’s head. 

“Well it’s approved for genin,” Sakura sniffed. “I told you that it was a training ground often used for the chunin exams. And it is called the forest of death! I assumed it would be at least kind of dangerous.” She flipped through the hand signs to perform an academy clone jutsu, but the grasshopper didn’t seem to care, ramming a giant arm down at all three of them. Sakura was barely able to avoid the resulting crash but her clones were not as lucky as they dispersed.

Sasuke sighed. After the success of the first two training grounds, the last three had been abject failures. Two had been busy- and even then there had been nothing special about them. The third one had been a ways away from the village proper, and was a swamp. The thick water was stagnant, brown, and smelled foul. Hundreds of insects had descended on the three within minutes of their arrival; Sasuke still had dozens of bites on his arms, legs, and neck. He supposed it would have been easy to learn the basics of water walking there- without a current and with all the organic matter, the water was actually easier to walk on than other sources. It didn’t serve their purpose, however, so Team Seven had gone back to the drawing board. 

They decided to revisit the first two training grounds until they had mastered water walking, and then after a week of that, Naruto had an idea. “Those two training grounds were way cooler than all of the ones in the village. We should just try more new ones so we can find the best and kick ass!”

It had worked well. Some of the training grounds were actually in tight caves, while another simulated using only the trees as the entire ground was covered with spikes. Even more impressive were the fields meant to simulate specific areas and conditions, using seals. One field was entirely covered with sand, and if a bit of chakra was put into a seal, wind would pick up, creating a smaller version of one of Suna’s infamous sandstorms. Meanwhile, another seal on another training ground changed the oxygen conditions to mimic those at high altitudes, such as in Kumo. Each seal was carved into a rock with a small inscription below it, though none of them took the time to read past the description of the effects 

Kakashi would, sooner or later find them at their new training ground, and it became a ritual to try to throw him off their trail for as long as possible (hard to tell if it worked since he was late to begin with, but he did seem more annoyed some days than others, which seemed like a win). He would take the time to correct any mistakes they were making, or offer suggestions and sometimes even scrolls for their training the next day. 

It…worked. And Sasuke could feel himself getting stronger each day. The different types of training grounds helped- he didn’t know where his search for That Man would lead him. He had been travelling for years now, Sasuke needed every advantage of understanding terrain and conditions he could get. 

A few weeks after they had settled into a patter, Naruto and Sakura came up to him. They seemed a bit nervous, but he didn’t care, and showed him the information on a new training ground they had apparently wanted to try out for a while. Training ground 44. He still didn’t care and told them as much, and so met them at one of the gates the next morning.

And thus, here he was.

“You thought this was a good idea?” he asked.

“Of course!” Naruto shouted as he leapt over Sasuke to go head to head with the creature. “Sakura and I have been preparing for the chunin exams for years now! We’re so going to kick ass when we take them. We didn’t think this was a training ground open to everyone though, but you have to admit it’s totally cool! Hey, do you think maybe we should aim for its eyes?” He flipped in mid-air, jumping off the grasshopper’s shoulder (or closest equivalent to it), landing on its forehead and trying to bury a kunai in one of its eyes.

Fortunately, it seemed Naruto was right- the grasshopper vehemently defended its eye like it hadn’t anything else. Unfortunately, its defense was some sort of dark red slime that it shot out of its mouth. Naruto obviously hadn’t expected this and shrieked in anger.

To Sasuke’s right, Sakura groaned, and he agreed with the sentiment. They had met outside training ground 44, apparently also called the Forest of Death, that morning and while Sasuke had idly glanced at the warning signs, he didn’t pay them much mind. Scaring civilians from doing something foolish was a major part of ninja village operations (there was a whole department in the government whose sole purpose was to keep civilians out of trouble). Team Seven had easily jumped over the gate, and Sakura showed them a map. About ten kilometers into the forest was a tower where two rivers converged. 

The first few minutes in the forest had been almost pleasant. And then Sakura had complained of some bug bite on her leg, which had begun to swell to a frighteningly large size by now. They had been attacked by a hoard of bats with razor-sharp wings and dangerously pointed noses (Naruto had shielded them from most of the damage with some well-placed shadow clones), but all three of them were littered with occasional scrapes and stab wounds.

Not to mention that Naruto got caught in an impenetrable spider web that seemed to have the side effect of draining chakra, Sakura looked at some flowers that made her hallucinate for several minutes (and even now, almost an hour later, she seemed to occasionally slip back into the hallucinations).

Sasuke, unlike his teammates, was not an idiot and was faring much better than the two of them. 

Finally, they had found a small clearing where Sasuke insisted that they take a break and check over the map. They would have left this hellhole already, but with Sakura’s hallucinations and Naruto’s pure stupidity, their ability to read the map had greatly diminished, and honestly Sasuke was too busy saving them from the next disaster to play close attention. 

But it had seemed clear at the time, and as Sasuke was beginning to figure out where exactly they were, he heard a surprised yelp come from Naruto and then a scream. Sasuke turned to look, only to see some mutant grasshopper standing over them. It was at least twenty feet tall, and the sides of its arms seemed to be the same sharpness as on the bat’s wings. 

The battle was not going well. Sasuke was certain that he could have taken the grasshopper down if he wasn’t still trying to make sure Naruto and Sakura didn’t die, which was a fulltime job in and of itself. In the back of his mind, he registered that wherever the liquid had hit Naruto, angry blisters were beginning to form. Sakura had taken the grasshopper’s momentary distraction to leap at it, only for it to swat her away, sending her flying into a tree, where she laid crumpled at its base. 

Naruto’s rash seemed to be swelling up. He was grasping at his throat. Sakura wasn’t moving. The grasshopper seemed to be preparing to shoot more of the liquid at the two. 

Sasuke acted.

(He was at a lake. It was sunset and he was so, so, so angry-so, so, so sad. His hands flew through the signs he had learned not too long ago, and a giant fireball appeared before him. It reflected off the lake, joining the already fiery colors from the sky, and it warmed his face. Uncomfortably so. His lips were dry from where he had spit the fire out, his hands were shaking. The fire, his anger, his sadness, burned bright and hot for a long time, until when it fizzled out, it was dark and cold.)

Like that time, he was angry (and a little something else), and he didn’t even think as his hands moved, creating the seal. “Fireball jutsu!” he shouted, and flames burst from his mouth, maybe even bigger and hotter than they had been that day at the lake.

It intercepted the poison spewing from the grasshopper’s mouth, this time a dark green, and it appeared the liquid was flammable because the last thing Sasuke saw was a giant explosion, roaring to catch him.

_-_-_-_

He woke up, and he was still in the forest. The thick layer of leaves above him told him as much, though some of the leaves were blackened and singed now. Something moved to his right and he slowly turned his head to look beside him. Naruto and Sakura lay next to him. Naruto’s rash seemed to be gone, and a member of the medical corps had a hand on Sakura’s forehead, enveloping it in a gentle green light.

Kakashi stood on the far side, watching over them. “Ah, you’re awake,” he said when he made eye contact with Sasuke. Then his eye closed in his version of a grin. “You’re alright, and Naruto and Sakura will be fine, so that’s a good thing. Still, not the showing in Training Ground 44 I was hoping from you guys. I guess we’ll have to practice more. Still, good job, I guess.”

“What happened?”

“Well, the grasshopper’s venom was flammable, which I’m sure you figured out. Combined with your Great Fireball Technique, you blew up a small clearing, including the grasshopper itself. I knew you guys would be at least a little injured, so I already had a medical-nin ready to accompany me, so it all worked out.”

The medical-nin finished healing Sakura, and she woke up, followed by Naruto shortly afterwards. Once they became more aware of the situation, twin grins split their faces.

“Kakashi-sensei, that was amazing!” Sakura gushed. 

“So cool,” Naruto agreed.

“Can we train here more? Maybe with you, next time though?”

“Meh, meh,” Kakashi said, “we’ll have to see, but I don’t think we’ll be able to come in here for a while.” He paused, smirking at the dejected looks on their faces and waited a few seconds before he continued. “I think it’s time for a training trip! And…your first C-ranked mission.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Kakashi here just doesn't have the knowledge or desire to babysit genin, or how to even start. I think he wants them to take initiative, and he's willing to help them fix/improve their techniques. I used to teach swim lessons. I could shape any technique into an acceptable (for an 8 year old) butterfly stroke, but I never figured out how to make kids learn to float by themselves. I figured this is a similar thing. 
> 
> Kakashi can't teach kids to become ninja, but he can teach ninja to become great. 
> 
> Also, thank you for the wonderful response to the first chapter. I hope this one did not disapoint!


	3. The Land of Fog, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Seven embarks on their first C-rank mission to a small country, the Land of Fog. Naruto and Sakura cause less trouble than usual.

For a so-called-shinobi who had somehow managed to impale himself on his own kunai, Naruto did not seem to be taking the situation seriously. He must have also hit his head when he tumbled out of the tree because blood was sluggishly dripping down the entire left side of his face. Of course, more worrying was the kunai sticking out of his shoulder. 

Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his necks. “Oops,” he said sheepishly. “But Sakura totally pushed me off that branch. Hey, Michi, could you show us some of your cool medical jutsu?”

Sakura had been standing next to Naruto, arms crossed and glaring at him with disappointment. “You’re just upset I won,” she said, motioning to the ground next to her. A large pile of sticks was sitting beside her feet. A short distance away, under a tree, Naruto’s sticks were scattered. 

Kakashi sighed as he looked over Naruto’s two wounds. “When I told you two to gather firewood, this isn’t what I had in mind.” He pulled some of Naruto’s hair back and eyed the injury. “It isn’t serious, they would probably both be fine with just bandages.”

“No, I’ll look at them,” Michi said. Extremely short, with ghostly pale skin and long black hair, Michi was their client for the mission. “It’ll be good to put what I learned to use in practice!”

Naruto’s grin widened. “This will be so cool!”

Sasuke glared. “Idiot, you were just healed by a medic-nin last week.”

“I was unconscious then,” Naruto pointed out. “Now I get to watch it! It’s going to be so cool!”

“It’s not like it’ll make any difference. You’re too stupid to understand what’s going, whether you’re awake or asleep.”

Naruto glared back at Sasuke, but before he could say anything, Michi had walked over to them. She pursed her lips and tapped the kunai in Naruto’s shoulder. He grimaced but didn’t say anything. Sweat had begun to form in beads along his forehead.

“It doesn’t look that bad,” she said. “I could probably heal it no problem.” She looked up at Naruto, “you sure you want this? We could probably find a well-equipped clinic in the next town and as long as you don’t disturb the kunai too badly it would probably hold until then. They'd have pain medicine.”

“No way!” Naruto shouted. “Let’s do this!”

No sooner were the words out of his mouth that Michi yanked the kunai out with one hand, the other immediately glowing green and reaching out to the suddenly bleeding wound. After a few moments, it began to close up. She then gently moved her hand to his head and the head wound begin to close the same way.

A few minutes later she was finished. She smiled. “Wow, that wasn’t hard at all! It definitely looked a lot worse than it was. You’re lucky, Naruto. Or maybe I’m just getting better, I guess! Still, lucky for you, I guess.”

“Of course he’s lucky. You should see him at the casinos. Man we can clean out the house! It’s the best!” Sakura chirped happily and slapped Naruto on the back. “Good as new?”

Naruto nodded and looked at Sakura’s pile of sticks. “How did you get so many so fast? I would have caught up with you if you hadn’t tripped me. What was your secret?”

Sakura eyed him suspiciously, as if worried he would use her technique against her the next time they competed over who could collect the most firewood. She seemed to decide she was safe though, and talked. “Well, we were pulling branches off trees, and I figured instead of using kunai I could use my chakra. I just kind of made it sharp and-“ she imitated slicing the tree, her straight hand slicing downward.”

Michi’s head jerked toward Sakura. “You made your chakra that sharp? Where did you learn that?”

“Yeah! And nowhere, really. I mean I read some books on how you could manipulate chakra, so I may have gotten the idea from there, I guess.”

Michi grabbed one of Sakura’s branches. “Show me what you did. Here, Naruto, take the other side.” 

Both of them held a side so the branch was horizontal. Sakura rolled her eyes, but stared at the branch. Then, with a “huaw!’ she streaked her hand down. On either side of her palm were small wisps of chakra and she sliced through the branch like it was paper. 

Michi stared at Sakura. “Wow, I have to admit, I’m jealous. Your chakra control must be amazing to be able to do that. That’s the same basic principle as the chakra scalpel and it took me months of focus to learn how to do that.”

Naruto perked up. “Hey, what’s a chakra scalpel?”

Michi smiled. “I can’t do the whole thing here, because it uses up a lot of chakra - and I don’t have much to begin with, but basically you can control your chakra to form a scalpel made almost entirely out of chakra. But it’s powerful enough to cut through bone and skin, obviously. It’s also a good form of defense for a medic- even if you run out of kunai and shuriken you can use it as a weapon.”

Sakura, meanwhile, was blushing. “You think my chakra control is that good? We’ve been working on it for a while- water walking and tree hopping- though Naruto obviously needs more help- but I’m glad it’s paying off!”

Michi confirmed. “It was great! If you did that instinctively, you should look into joining the Medic Corps. We’d be Brothers in Medicine that way.” She beamed.

Sakura’s grin had begun to shatter as her face grew paler. “You mean medicine like lungs and guts hanging out and burns and blood? Ehhh, that’s not really, you know, not really my style.”

“Sakura likes causing injuries, not dealing with them,” Naruto supplied helpfully. “She’s better now but she used to pass out whenever something was too injured. It was kind of hilarious!”

Sakura slapped Naruto. “Shut up, Naruto! I wasn’t that bad! But…he isn’t entirely wrong. Kakashi-sensei has been teaching us how to detect genjutsu and some of them are pretty awful. I don’t know if I could be around that all day. Maybe someday though!”

Sasuke rolled his eyes as she spoke. Technically, one could say that 'Kakashi was teaching them to detect genjutsu', if by ‘teaching’ they meant ‘showing up during their personal time and putting them under one by surprise.’ An effective strategy. Of course Naruto still couldn’t detect a genjutsu to save his life. 

Michi laughed. “That attitude is more common than you think. Do you have issues with needles too?”

Sakura shook her head. “Senbon are awesome. Hey, did you learn how to make poisons when you were training? I think that’d be super cool, and that’s something medics are good at, right?”

“I didn’t learn that, no,” Michi admitted. “The way non-citizens work in the Medic Corps is we’re restricted to learning mostly pure healing. And I didn’t really get into medicine to cause harm to begin with. Some medics concentrate in poisons. Suna’s Chiyo was legendary for her poisons, and Konoha’s Tsunade was legendary for countering them.”

“Neat!” Sakura said. 

Kakashi beamed. “This has already been such an informative mission and we’re only on the first day! Sakura, if you’re interested in studying poisons there are a few shinobi in the village that could help you out.”

“That’ll be great, Kakashi-sensei!” Sakura gushed.

Michi eyed the two wearily as she fell in step with Sasuke, who was in charge of setting up the tents. “Your team has a lot of energy,” she muttered to him as she helped spread out the tent.

He scoffed. “That’s one word for it. They aren’t joking, either. She’s going to get back to the village and start playing with poison and Naruto will probably trip and spill it on them and they’ll both die.”

She smiled and nudged his shoulder, ignoring his scowl. “Sounds like you don’t want that to happen.”

“The chunin exams are coming up soon. I need to be in it, and for that I need a team that isn’t dead.”

Michi let out a loud laugh. “I don’t blame you for that. I got to watch the chunin exams finals the first year I was in Konoha. It’s certainly something! All those kids are crazy talented. Of course, we also spent a solid chunk of it shadowing the medic-nin in charge of healing the contestants. Some of those wounds were nasty. Nonetheless, if I had grown up as a ninja I bet I’d be begging for a chance to participate.”

Naruto, upon hearing Michi’s laugh, shouted over to the two of them, “the chunin exams? Sakura and I have been planning them for years, don’t worry we’re going to kick butt!” Then Sakura threw a stick at him and he had to continue his work.

Finally, their campsite was finished, the traps around it were set, rotations were decided, and the firewood was sitting in a large pile. Something was off, and as usual, it was Sakura who was the first to speak up. “Sensei, why did we set up camp so early? We can go a lot further today, can’t we?”

Kakashi looked up from his book. “Well, technically yes.”

“Then why didn’t we?” Naruto shouted. 

“I guess…I didn’t feel like it.”

Michi groaned. “We’re on the very outskirts of the Land of Fog right now,” she explained. “It’s a long, narrow country that located in a large canyon. This is the only real entrance and, well, you want to limit your travelling time as much as possible.”

“If we started walking through it now we would spend at least two nights there,” Kakashi added. “And…that’s not really a good idea. So we’re going to get up before dawn and start then.”

“Why is that?” Sasuke said slowly. “Surely it isn’t any worse than camping out in any unknown territory, territory just like the one we’re in now.”

“The fog is infused with chakra,” Kakashi explained. “No one really knows how it happened, but it can be very potent. It makes it almost impossible to sense other chakra and can lead to all sorts of nasty side effects.”

Sakura turned to Michi. “Why do people live there?”

She smiled lightly. “You’ll see.”

_-_-_-_

The next morning, Kakashi woke them up before the sun had risen. Quickly and grumpily, they packed up the camp, sealing most things into a small scroll Kakashi kept in a pocket. Despite setting camp up early, none of them had been able to fall asleep early. Instead, Kakashi had explained what to expect from the Land of Fog and participated in his new favorite training exercise: spot (and dispel) the genjutsu. Sakura and Sasuke had tied, while Naruto had been covered in imaginary spiders before Sakura took pity on him and dispelled it. 

They began walking. About ten minutes into their walk, Kakashi held up a barely-visible hand. “We’ll wait here.”

They were on the edge of a sharp cliff, one of the first things taught to academy students is how to sense your surroundings even without looking. It wasn’t so much that they could feel the cliff, just the lack of ground in front of them, like a sixth sense. Standing where they were felt like standing at the edge of Crater City, or their new favorite training ground, or even at the top of the Hokage Monument. Something felt different than the cliffs back at Konoha, however, so they waited.

Naruto was the first one to see it. “Wow,” he breathed. “This must be what birds feel like.”

Sasuke’s confusion at the statement was soon resolved, and much to his irritation Naruto was right. As the sun peaked over the horizon and the world began to light up, the unknown empty space before them slowly transformed.

It was a cliff they were standing on, but instead of seeing a city or a pool or even the village, all there was for miles and miles beneath them were clouds. 

“The fog,” Sakura whispered. “It’s so beautiful. But I think I see what you mean, it really feels weird.” She shuddered. 

“You should get used to it,” Kakashi assured her. “But remember, bandits love using the fog to ambush people and it can play tricks on the mind. Stay together. If you do get separated, follow the western wall, but know that some bandits also will stick to the walls so be careful.”

He pointed a few feet in front of them, where a steep switchback path was carved. “This is the only entrance into the Land of Fog on this edge of the canyon. Let’s go.”

As they descended, the fog became denser and denser, and the temperature grew cooler. There was an eerie silence that settled over them, so unlike the constant sound of bird chirping that was signature of Konoha and the forests around it. The switchback path was narrow and they walked single file. Kakashi was in the front, and by the time they neared the bottom Sasuke who was in the back could barely see him. 

He could see Sakura, though, right in front of him. Her back was completely straight, a kunai clenched in one fist and the other fist just clenched. She was shaking, though he wasn’t sure if anyone else could have noticed.

“Sakura,” he whispered. “Are you okay?”

Her fists tightened further, if that was even possible. He couldn’t see her expression, but he could tell she was trying to smile reassuringly when she muttered back, “I’m fine Sasuke, don’t worry. This fog is just…kinda creepy, right?”

Sasuke was silent. Maybe it was, but…Sakura had taken to Kakashi’s genjutsu training like a fish to water, and that was the very definition of creepy. She had been right when she told Michi she wasn’t a fan of blood, but by second day she was shrugging out of some of his most disturbing genjutsu without flinching. (In theory, genjutsu was at its weakest when the content was shocking, the human response of denial was so powerful it could easily shrug off genjutsu on its own. Of course, Kakashi being such a powerful shinobi himself was able to account for that. As they progressed, the harder genjutsu to detect were the most discreet- a shadow where none should be, a bee buzzing near a flower, a tree that hadn’t been there before. But Kakashi was also a fan of theatrics, so sometimes they would dispel the small squirrel only to be confronted with a skeleton digging out of the ground where it had been). 

“You’re more sensitive to the chakra,” he said at last. “You’re feeling the chakra in the fog and it’s doing this to you.”

Sakura stilled for barely an instant. “Kind of stupid, isn’t it?”

Sasuke had had a cousin who could would throw up whenever his father and aunt would spar, and in certain cases would even pass out if they used very advanced jutsu and she was too close. On the other hand, she herself could create amazing jutsu, bested only by Itachi and Shisui at her age.

“You’re sensitive to chakra,” he repeated. 

She seemed to accept that as some kind of reassurance and nodded slightly. Maybe her hands loosened their grip, but the fog could have blurred his vision. 

When they finally reached the bottom of the canyon, they grouped up in a circle, barely able to see each other through the fog. Sakura was still stiff, but seemed to be slowly adjusting to the fog’s presence, and Sasuke was able to feel the chakra in the fog himself. It was like a constant buzzing in his head and movement in his peripheral vision. Naruto, however, seemed to be completely unaffected by it. 

Kakashi quickly went over the rules again, and they set out, forming a perimeter with Michi in the middle. As they were walking, Naruto turned to her. “Hey, how did you get out of here to get to Konoha.”

She laughed quietly. “I lived here, I knew were all the traps were and, well you’ll see but people in my village have a way of being able to navigate clearly. I’ve been gone for so long that I can’t rely on those anymore. I would probably be fine, but hired your team for reassure-“

She was cut off as Naruto tackled her to the ground. The rest of Team Seven turned in surprise, only to see a kunai fly over her head. 

Naruto leapt off the ground and pulled out his weapons, a smile on his face. “I guess you made the right choice, after all. Shadow clone jutsu!”

Sasuke scowled. It was almost impossible to see the bandits, and did the fog have an effect on his hearing too? Naruto still didn’t seem to be having any problems, his shadow clones easily finding and working on the bandits- of course that could have just been dumb luck. Kakashi also didn’t seem to be having any of these problems, but that was to be expected.

He ran to where he knew Michi was- surely the bandits would go after her first and he could intercept them. Sakura was already with Michi, fighting a bandit who had slipped through Naruto’s shadow clones. He joined in, the bandit falling easily to their combined effort. Several more from the group seemed to materialize, but Sasuke was ready for them, and one by one the bandits went down. 

Finally, it was silent again in the canyon. Naruto bounded over to them, grinning. “Sakura, that move you pulled on that one guy was so cool! Did you put chakra in your punches?”

“Yeah,” she grinned, seeming to feel better after the fight. “Wait, how did you even see that? The fog is way too thick!”

Naruto looked confused (as usual). “What do you mean, Sakura? Like yeah it’s kind of foggy but it gets foggy in the village too!”

For a second Sasuke seriously wondered if the idiot couldn’t tell the difference between a foggy day in Konoha and this extremely, supernaturally dense fog. Kakashi seemed to be wondering the same thing. He stuck out his arm behind him, where it seemed to disappear into the mist. “Naruto, how many fingers am I holding up.”

Naruto crossed his arms. “I’m not falling for this. You’re going to tell me the pinky isn’t a finger and it totally is, but that’s the only one you have up.”

Kakashi seemed to expect this response. “Good job, Naruto. Okay, change of plans. Create some clones and circle around us as we walk. Have them disperse for any threats and let us know. Got it?”

“Okay!” Naruto shouted and quickly summoned some clones. 

As they continued walking through the fog, Sakura began to grow tense again while Naruto walked carefree as ever. So one teammate who felt the effects of the fog too much, and one who seemingly couldn’t feel them at all. A sensor and a chakra powerhouse. Sasuke smirked. This team was getting interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes! Sorry this took so long. It was so hard to write. I had almost 2K words done before I just started all over again. I’m glad I did though, it was garbage and I like where this is going a lot more than what I originally had. But man, I tried everything to get inspired. I was listening to playlists to get into the ‘write’ mindset, writing down quotes, all sorts of stuff. I know they deal with mist on their C-rank to the Land of Waves, but I just couldn’t let the concept of spooky fog go, and I’m really liking how the Land of Fog is turning out. Michi won’t be important later on, she’s just a Tazuna-esque character I guess, but nice and not drunk. This chapter had more Sakura-development than I expected, to be honest, but I'm not upset about that (and hopefully you guys aren't either).
> 
> Finally I just want to say I’m totally, totally blown away by the response this has gotten. You guys are fantastic and the reason I tried so freakin’ hard to actually get this chapter out! This is getting slightly more dramatic than it has been in previous chapter so I hope that’s okay (if not, I'm going to release a crackish series soon), but I’m going to try to space out Naruto and Sakura being crazy because I have some great ideas there! XOX


	4. The Land of Fog, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuing adventures in the land of fog.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHERE WE LAST LEFT OFF: Naruto and Sakura have been trouble-making best friends for years, and now that he’s been assigned to their team they’ve roped Sasuke into their world of chaos. While completing the bell test, they jump to conclusions and end up in a notorious gambling town (while also taking out some C-rank missing-nin). While looking for training grounds, the fight a dangerous praying mantis in the Forest of Death. Kakashi and the Hokage decide that they can probably handle C-ranks (earlier than in canon) and so he sends them as an escort to the Land of Fog, a small country located in a giant canyon (think the grand canyon but maybe wider) with a dark, chakra-infused fog. 
> 
> A/N: Okay, first and foremost I was completely wowed and overwhelmed by everyone’s lovely responses, which makes the fact I took months to update that much more awful. I figure at the very least I owe you an explanation. Over the summer, I had an internship and a couple summer classes, so technically I was working and going to school full-time. That ended, so I moved home halfway across the country and began school where I took on more than I can chew (like way too much). BUT it’s over and I graduated and am about the join the realm of the Big Kids. So I can’t promise how often I’ll update but I can promise that I’ll do what I can. 
> 
> Also, before some of you guys worry, Michi will never be that important in the story. Again, she’s a Tazuna level character, more of a convenient way to explain the plot and keep it moving.

Suddenly, Sasuke dropped to the ground. In the time it took for the rest of Team Seven to draw their weapons, Sasuke had already leapt back up and was gripping his shuriken so tightly that blood trailed down his wrists.

Team Seven stayed in position for several minutes, Michi in the middle. They scanned the foggy area and strained to hear anything beyond the light breathing of each other. Finally, without looking at him, Kakashi murmured, “Naruto? Do you see or hear anything?”

“No, Kakashi-Sensei.”

“Okay, stay in position, keep looking out.” Kakashi then turned to Sasuke scanning him over and patting him down. “Are you okay, Sasuke? What happened?”

“That scream, it was all I could focus on.”

“What scream?”

Sasuke jerked his head up. “You didn’t hear it? It was so loud, I still can’t get it out of my head. It came out of nowhere, and it was so powerful.” His face was pale, but a faint blush was making its way up his cheeks as he came to the realization that no one else had heard what he had. “It was nothing, I’m fine.”

Kakashi grabbed Sasuke’s hands and loosened them from around the shuriken. Then, he eyed the wounds the shuriken caused and motioned for Michi to come over and take a look. As Michi worked on his hands and Naruto and Sakura continued to stand guard, Kakashi spoke to Sasuke in a low voice.

“Listen, Sasuke,” he said. “The Land of Fog is treacherous. Even the most skilled ninja can fall prey to it, and in some cases they’re the most susceptible. Our chakra, like all chakra, is a combination of physical and spiritual energy. We as ninja tend to forget about the spiritual nature of it, but the events we go through, the things we learn, the people we meet all have an effect on our chakra. This fog tends to dredge up some of the awful things imprinted on our spirits.”

Sasuke looked away from him. “I’m fine. I won’t overreact next time.”

Kakashi sighed, and patted him on the back. “That’s good. Let’s keep going. The sooner we can get out of here the better.”

Time passed differently in the canyon. Distantly, Sasuke remembered that just that morning, they had watched the sun rise and light hit the fog. It had been beautiful. Now, underneath the fog, it was impossible to orient themselves, either direction-wise or timewise. While some light penetrated through the fog, there was no way anyone could tell the position the sun was in.

He personally thought that it probably seemed like they had been down here longer than they had. The scream he had heard had only been the first, and they had put him on edge. He had switched to keeping his hand tight around his kunai, and each time one of the terrible shrieks echoed through the fog he gripped it tighter.

It was right after one of these screams when he suddenly felt a hand wrap around his. Flinching, Sasuke looked to see Naruto next to him, holding onto his hand firmly. Naruto’s other hand had a tight grip on Sakura’s arm. Naruto himself was staring right ahead, refusing to make eye contact. 

“Something in this fog is really hurting you guys,” he said. “I know it isn’t hitting me the same way it’s hitting you guys, but it’ll be alright! I promise!”

Though even from this distance it was difficult to see through the fog, Sasuke noticed that tears were streaming down Sakura’s face. She bit her lip and nodded. “Thanks, Naruto.”

As they walked, the differences between Sakura and Naruto became more obvious to Sasuke. Naruto’s grip was steady, and he didn’t seem to make a sound, except every now and then he would turn to Sakura with furrowed eyebrows or mutter something to her. But, loath as he was to admit it, Naruto’s presence did help.

They continued for a while (it could have been minutes, could have been hours) when Naruto suddenly released his arm, and grabbed a kunai. “One of my clones just popped!” he shouted. “I don’t know what did it!”

As they had before, the ninja surrounded Michi, standing at the ready. It was quiet, so soon it was obvious what had attacked the clone. He could hear the growling, coming from all directions around him, just outside his field of vision.

“They’re wolves,” Michi whispered to them. “But it doesn’t make sense- they only come out at night and we have at least an hour until then. Something is very wrong here.”

Sasuke didn’t have time to dwell on that, because as one at least a dozen wolves leapt from outside the fog, into their vision. Even so, it was hard to see them. The wolves’ coats were the exact gray as the fog itself, and it was easy for them to fade in and out of it. 

Kakashi was making good time, neatly killing at least three before he only managed to strike one in the side- not enough to be a killing blow. The wolf let out a blood-curling howl, and suddenly it seemed like the whole canyon erupted into howls. Sasuke caught Sakura’s eyes, which were steely but worried. There were definitely more than twelve wolves here. 

The fight seemed to go on for an hour, but it wasn’t until he bumped up against the wall that Sasuke realized that they had lost so much ground. They had whittled away at the wolves’ numbers, and as far as Sasuke could tell they had sustained no serious injuries. Simply put, it seemed it would be a war of attrition. Who could last the longest without stopping for food, water, or rest. 

Michi was mostly staying between the shinobi, occasionally calling out the location of a wolf or using a kunai to strike at one. As a wolf leapt at Sasuke, she appeared beside him, quickly stabbing it. She shot him a wry smile, even as her face was covered by blood spatter. “It still doesn’t make sense. These wolves hunt in packs, but not this large and not against an enemy willing to fight so hard back.”

As she continued to fight off the smaller wolves, thoughts were flying through Sasuke’s head. If they could figure out why the wolves were acting so different, maybe they could find a way to win, or at least get away. The longer this had gone on, the more something about the wolves had been nagging at him.

His Sharingan was activated, of course. It had been since Naruto had mentioned his clone disappearing. But for the first time, he chose not to just look at the wolves but around them, well as far as he could actually see. He was backed up against a large pile of rocks, an opening to a cave? Yes, it did seem to be a narrow opening that lead down to a wider cavern with what sounded like a river inside. The wolves themselves seemed almost-normal, not much different than the wolves that roamed around Konoha. But something was different about them. Sasuke just couldn’t put his finger on what it was. 

At least he couldn’t until out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of a wolf biting at Sakura, and watched that as she stabbed it the chakra in the wolf seemed to burst with color before absorbing into a small strip around one of the wolf’s legs and then fading.

“Sakura,” Sasuke quipped. “Cover me for just a second!”

“Sure!” She shouted, and moved to intercept a wolf coming at him. Without looking, he raced to the wolf she had just taken out and pulled up its hind leg. 

Yes. There. Right where he had seen the chakra absorb to was a seal wrapped around the wolf’s leg. A quick scan of the wolf itself revealed that there were no more seals, but as watched Sakura kill another wolf, the same process of chakra absorbing into one of the legs repeated himself. He jumped to the wolf and as he grew closer he could see the seal.

“Kakashi!” he shouted. “They have seals on their legs! They absorb the chakra when the wolf dies!”

“Chakra harvesters!” Michi growled as she dodged a wolf. “The chakra here is so potent thatsome people try to take it to use in fuinjutsu and kinjutsu. All the animals here have been able to adapt to this environment by using the chakra, so a lot the harvesters will set traps that place these seals on animals. It messes with their minds, and then when they die the harvesters find the corpses and collect the chakra.”

“That’s awful!” Naruto shouted. “There’s got to be a way we can help them- maybe we could remove the seal?” He threw up his hands into a familiar sign. “Multi-Shadow clone jutsu!”

Hundreds of Narutos appeared, all shouting at once as they raced for the wolves. As they attacked, Sasuke felt something grab the back of his shirt. Upon turning, it was revealed to be Kakashi who had grabbed Sakura and (probably) the real Naruto in his other hand. Standing next to him was Michi. 

“Your plan is all well and good, Naruto,” Kakashi said. “But if you remove too many of the seals while we’re around then-”

An explosion (why were there so many explosions in his life now?) erupted from where the wolves were. While it was far enough away to not cause immediate harm, it did send their group skidding across the ground. Immediately Sasuke leapt to his feet, kunai out, waiting for the wolves. But it seemed the explosion had either killed the rest of them off or sent them scattering.

Kakashi was also standing, as was Michi who had been behind him when the explosion went off. Kakashi was, if nothing else, a professional. Sakura was a ways away, inside the entrance of the cave, but she was sitting up, though dazed, and Naruto had gone over to check her over. 

Suddenly, there was another rumbling sound and it was all Sasuke could do to look and see as the mouth of the cave slowly began to fall. Right onto where Naruto and Sakura were sitting.

He may have screamed, he wasn’t sure. All he knew is that in that moment all he could think about was his Sharingan was activated and he was going to watch his comrades be crushed and it would repeat over and over in his head with perfect memory. 

But then he head a shout, “OBITO, NO” as Kakashi madly dashed forward, looking almost invisible as he was able to tackle Naruto and Sakura past the point of the cave in and into the water below. The last thing Sasuke could see before the entrance caved in was Kakashi holding Sakura’s head above the water. 

After the entrance of the cave crashed, Michi numbly walked over to Sasuke. “Do you think they made it out?” she breathed.

Sasuke pursed his lips and closed his eyes, recalling the last few seconds. There, clearly in his memory, Kakashi holding Sakura’s head and Naruto right next to them, as they were swept down the river in the cave. 

“They did,” Sasuke said. “But they fell into the river. Where does it lead?”

“Oh thank goodness,” Michi exclaimed, holding her hand to her heart. “As for that river, well it’s probably one of the two rivers that intersect near my town. Our best bet is to keep on our journey and meet up with them there.”

Sasuke nodded. “Okay, well we should keep walking now.”

Michi shook her head. “I know you want to, but night has fallen now. I’m fine if we keep going. One thing we learn as medics is to not get tired, but you have to understand what going on will mean. Everything you’ve heard or felt or seen in the fog. It will be far worse tonight. Creatures like those wolves will actually come out. We’ll have to be careful.”

Sasuke nodded. “The sooner we get back to your village, the sooner we can find Kakashi and Naruto and Sakura.”

“Okay,” Michi agreed. “Then we should get going. I will tell you though, there’s a few hours at night when we will have to make a camp- that is non-negotiable. Also, do you have any jutsu that will help us see, at least a little?”

“I do,” Sasuke said, as he summoned a flame in his hand. With his other hand he dug into his pack and found the materials needed to make a long-lasting torch and lit them. 

Michi gave him a small smile which deepened into a frown. “Your arm. You got bit. Here, let me heal it a a little for you.” She held her hands up to arm and he shivered as her cool chakra worked its way around his wound and under his skin, knitting it back together. When she had finished they began walking towards her village. 

“When you’re a medic trained by Konoha, you swear an oath to always heal an injured Konoha-nin if you are able to. That, and in times of distress I can be called into the village to help heal the wounded. It’s really such a small price to pay for what we’re able to learn,” Michi explained.

“They can’t possibly enforce that,” Sasuke muttered. 

“No,” she agreed. “It’s our duty, but it’s also our honor. I’m sure plenty of people have learned and used the skills against your village, but your Hokage believes that it does more good than harm. I agree with him. He’s a wise man.”

They continued to walk for a while in silence, though Sasuke occasionally could hear the phantom screams pitch through the night. Michi had been right- they were louder in the night, and seemed to come from closer. As they continued to walk, she began to hum a strange song under breath. It was an old chant, she explained to him, passed down in her village. Supposedly it would appease the restless spirits that took a home in the fog, as well as draw the kind ones closer. 

It didn’t seem to be working. The screams rattled his bones, and the second time that he swore he saw Itachi watching from just beyond his vision he stopped. Turning to Michi he said, “Okay, what’s the secret.”

“The secret?”

“How does your people handle living here?”

She sighed. “There isn’t anything I can do right now to guarantee anything. When we get to my village you’ll see how we’re able to travel. All I can say is that... you won’t like it but talking is the best help.”

“Talking?”

“Yes. Focus your mind somewhere else. The fog is so potent because it affects your spiritual energy and your thoughts are a huge part of that. As it brings your worst fears and memories up, you dwell on them in the present, which makes them all the more powerful. If you talk then you’re taking your mind of things so they have less of an effect.”

“I’m not really one for talking.”

“I got that impression. But you’re going to have to be. Let’s just have a normal conversation- you ask me questions and I’ll answer.”

For a moment Sasuke didn’t respond, but then the shadow-Itachi stepped out from the fog, just long enough to give him a smile. So gritting his teeth, he asked, “why did you choose to become a medic?” Their conversation continued for several hours as they walked, though in hushed tones as they rushed through bandit territory. They mostly discussed what Michi had learned in Konoha, how medical ninjutsu differed from most other jutsu, and several techniques. Finally, Michi held up her hand and led him to another outcropping of rocks.

“The darkest part of the night will start soon,” she whispered to him. She pulled out several scrolls and set them out in square surround the area they had set camp. She bit her thumb and let a drop of blood fall on each of them while under her breath she muttered a strange chant, like the song she had been humming earlier. 

“Stay in the barrier,” she said. “If you can sleep, try to do so. We’ll be safe.”

“I can’t fall asleep,” Sasuke pointed out. “I’m supposed to be guarding you.”

“Believe me- no one will be out to get us right now. The only thing we have to worry about is exactly what those seals are for.”

He was determined to stay awake, but the seals she had placed seem to block out the screams that he had been hearing for the entirety of the day and, despite his best effort, he found himself drifting off. Two major fights had left him exhausted, both physically and mentally.

Sasuke wasn’t sure how long he had been asleep for when suddenly he was woken up by what sounded like a giant gust of wind. He quickly sat up, only to see by the dim light of the torch that something had happened to the fog. It was eerie; it seemed to be luminescent, glowing silver, and he swore that as it blew past the barrier seals it made shapes. The fog itself seemed to slam into their barrier, as if it was alive and trying to get in. He could hear the wind as it whipped past them, howling and angry.

Through the gusts of fog, he could swear that he saw golden lights running along the ground and flying through the air, as if dancing inside the masses of fog. As the storm (because what else could he call it if not a storm?) raged on it grew more intense, until soon it was just a swirl of white and silver and gold all around him.

The storm weakened suddenly, until soon all that was left was the occasional drift of silver fog or dash of gold streaking across the canyon. One of the flecks of gold came nearer to their campsite, and seemed to circle around the edges almost lazily. Sasuke watched it for a bit, until he was again overcome by drowsiness and fell asleep. 

When he woke up next it was clearly morning. He nudged Michi awake and as soon as her eyes opened he questioned her about what he had seen last night. To his relief, she didn’t seem surprised at all by what he witnessed, but instead of explaining it to him she simply said, “look I know this sounds ridiculous, but it really will be a thousand times easier to explain when I get home. But I promise I will, okay?”

Technically, she had hired him, so it wasn’t his place to continue to ask questions. They set off again. The canyon seemed different then it had the day before. While he still heard screams and saw the occasional shadow-figure, it didn’t seem as all-consuming as it had been. And he could swear that occasional he saw a flicker of gold out of the corner of his eye. 

The day went by faster, but there were no signs of bandits or creatures. As the evening began approaching, Michi pointed out another crop of rocks much like the ones they had camped at the night before. “We’re almost there!” she squealed.

It seemed that the thought of being home after being gone for so long got the best of her, and so she took off running. Sasuke bolted after her and finally they arrived at a wall on the edge of the canyon. She smiled, and showed Sasuke where a seal had been carved into the rock. She bit her thumb and pressed it into the seal, as she had done with the seals the night before, and added some chakra. Suddenly, parts of the canyon wall began moving until a ladder formed.

Michi climbed up and Sasuke followed her. As they rose, the fog seemed to lift, until they had climbed about a hundred feet. It was clear, and Sasuke could see that they had climbed high enough for a massive ledge to have opened up on the side of the ladder. They stepped off and he was greeted by what could only be Michi’s village. 

The ledge the village was on was huge- easily two or three times the size of some of the towns Sasuke had been to in the past. It overlooked the fog that he had been walking through, but several hundred feet above them it seemed to have started again.

Being out of the fog was nice. It felt like as his vision had cleared so had his head. He looked from the edge to the village proper, and saw a blur of orange a pink racing at him.

“Sasuke!” Sakura shouted. “You made it!”

He eyed his teammates; they looked a little worse for wear- several scratches and bruises, and their clothes had definitely seen better days. But for all intents and purposes, they were okay and he felt the last traces of unease from being in the canyon leave him. 

“We’ve been here for a while,” Sakura said. “The river did most of the work for us, heh. But we were really worried about you. We thought about going out to try to find you but the sensei said we had to wait until tomorrow to do anything ‘drastic!’”

“I’m not the one who nearly got crushed,” he pointed out, but as usual neither Sakura nor Naruto seemed to care what he had to say.

From one of the buildings, Kakashi stuck out his head. “If you three are interested, the villagers were kind enough to prepare us dinner,” he called.

Sakura and Naruto looked each other and took off sprinting towards the house, while Sasuke sighed and followed them. Inside the house, a table was filled with all sorts of food. Michi was sitting inside, with what Sasuke assumed to be her family (which, in their day together, he had learned a lot about).

Small talk was made, but mostly they enjoyed being able to sit down and eat in relative calmness. 

After dinner, Michi motioned for team seven to follow her. Kakashi opted to stay behind, expressing that he had already seen what they were about to and he had some work to get to. Of course, has his hand it been on the pocket where he kept his book, Sasuke doubted that work was his real motivation. 

Michi led them to the opposite end of the ledge, where the wall of the canyon rose into the fog above. There was a small opening, which she led them in. Sakura and Naruto followed without question, regardless of their previous cave-related incident the day before. 

There were several caverns within the cave, and multiple paths in each one, but Michi walked through the cave with confidence. Finally, as the cave itself grew darker and the path grew smaller, they squeezed through one last opening.

Sakura gasped and Naruto could only mutter “whoa.”

Past the opening, the cave open opened into a mammoth cavern. In this section of the cave, it looked almost as if a forest had been growing for generations. In the forest there were hundreds of golden animals. Most were what appeared to be bugs, but there were also several birds and rodents running through the trees.

Michi led them down into the cave’s forest without saying a word. It was surprising how completely at peace he felt. It was almost as if he was back at the Village Hidden in the Leaves, darting through the surrounding forests as some kind of training exercise. 

More jarring was the fact that, like the fog, he could hear people from just inside the trees. Laughter and singing and he could swear that he could hear muttering that belonged to his mother, when she would conspiratorially whisper to him. 

Sakura turned to Michi in wonder. “What is this place?” She was grinning from ear to ear, and Sasuke could only wonder if it was affecting her just as much as the fog had. A quick glance at Naruto who seemed to be in awe of the forest, but not particularly happy, confirmed his suspicions. Whereas the fog had dug into their worst fears and memories, this area seemed to do the opposite. 

“There are a lot of legends surrounding this canyon,” Michi said. “I don’t have all day so I won’t go into them. But the overall idea in all of them is that this is where a great battle between good and evil broke out long ago, and is still being fought. The fog is obviously dark chakra, but we as a village are here to protect this forest, where light chakra is.”

“So what happened last night,” Sasuke began.

Michi shrugged. “We don’t know what exactly it is, but what we do know is that at the darkest part of the night, the negative chakra seems to take a hold until it’s fought off. Maybe a mini battle of good versus evil, right in front of us. As for how we move around, well-“ she held out her hand and hummed the song she had before and a small lightning bug flew until it landed on her hand. “We get by with a little help from our friends! Tomorrow morning, we’ll seal one of these little guys to you and it’ll help lead you out of the canyon. Sorry, you can’t keep him, though. They have to stay in the canyon.”

“Wow,” Sakura breathed. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Me neither,” Naruto agreed. “But I guess we don’t have to say anything, right?”

“I guess not.”

And so, Team Seven stood silently in the forest for what could have been minutes, but what could have been hours. Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay, I’m not like….super thrilled with this one but what can I say. I love the land of fog, it is my baby and I will probably recycle it in future fics as well. Honestly, I could write a full story taking place in the land of fog if I wanted to. So basically, it’ll be back. I accidentally came up with a plot in the five months I’ve been gone, so I guess this story won’t just be team seven fluff and adventures the entire time. Oh well!


	5. Land of Waves, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Seven and Tazuna arrive at Tazuna's house after facing Zabuza and Haku for the first time. Sasuke and Kakashi have a heart-to-heart and Naruto and Sakura open up Shinobi Clinic for the children of Wave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHERE WE LAST LEFT OFF: the mission to the Land of Fog was a success.
> 
> A/N: This takes place after a minor timeskip (kind of?). Basically nothing important changes regarding the battle with the Demon Brothers and the first battle with Zabuza. Like let's be real: Naruto stabs himself in the arm and attacks a missing nin because he wants his headband- there is nothing more ridiculous I can add to this. So we'll deal with some of the aftermath. The only change of note is that Naruto probably doesn't freeze up when the Demon Brothers come but totally ends up getting poisoned. 
> 
> I love the Land of Waves arc. It is just so important so I'm trying to do my best to get all the character development the anime/manga itself has while adding my own into the mix. So I'll change some stuff but overall it won't be terribly AU.

After Kakashi woke up and after he was scolded by Tsunami, his genin raced into the room and soon there were three sets of eyes staring at him. It was...rather disconcerting, if not surprising. What was surprising was that Sasuke was the first one to speak. “You overused your Sharingan somehow. For someone who is called Kakashi of the Sharingan you’re not very good at using it. Also, how did you get a Sharingan?”

“Well,” Kakashi sniffed, “If you’re going to be rude can you really expect me to answer your questions?”

Until that moment Sakura had been standing to the side but suddenly her eyes flared. “That’s not fair, Kakashi-Sensei, and you know it! It’s like Sasuke said, the Sharingan eyes are rare, even in members of the Uchiha Clan, so how can you have one? He deserves an explanation.”

Kakashi sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair. It was still grimy and dirty from the battle- his entire body was. All he really wanted wash to wash off and fall back asleep but both Sakura and Sasuke were glaring holes into his head. Naruto looked confused, but had followed Sakura’s example and was also staring at him expectantly. Obviously while he was unconscious his genin had come up with a plan of attack.

“I didn’t steal them if that’s what you’re wondering, Sasuke,” he conceded. “It’s a long story that happened years before you were born, and your clan was well aware that I possessed this eye.”

“Whose was it?”

“It was a friend of mine.” Painstakingly, Kakashi forced himself up. Almost on cue, Tsunami was there to glare at him while also shoving a crutch into his arms. 

“If you’re going to do something stupid, you can at least be careful about it,” she sniffed. 

He nodded his thanks and slowly began walking towards the door. “Let’s take a walk, Sasuke. I’ll explain.” Before he got to the door he looked from Sasuke to Sakura and Naruto. “After I talk to Sasuke, the three of you will need to start training. Zabuza is still alive.”

As expected, both Naruto and Sakura began to yell their disbelief, but Kakashi was able to explain his reasoning well enough. Sakura’s eye furrowed while Naruto began to smile. Of course, Naruto wanted another chance against Zabuza and the mysterious hunter-nin. 

“He won’t be able to get away from us this time!” Naruto exclaimed. “We’ll kick his ass.”

“No you won’t; you’re going to die!” a voice shouted, and then Kakashi was almost knocked off his crutch by the arrival of a young child as he raced for Tazuna’s arm.

“Inari,” Tsunami shrieked. “That was very rude of you! These ninja got your grandfather home safely!”

“It’s okay,” Tazuna said. “I’m rude to them too.”

As Inari and Naruto began arguing, Kakashi figured it was his time to leave, and slowly left the room, glancing back to make sure that Sasuke was following him. He was, his eyes were steely and his face was set, and not for the first time did Kakashi feel Obito’s absent acutely. 

He let Sasuke lead, and was unsurprised when the boy walked towards a pier by the house, jumping off it to stand on the water. As Kakashi slowly walked to the edge of the pier and sat down with his legs dangling over, Sasuke said, “I figure I may as well work on walking on ocean water. There’s so much of it around here.”

“Good thinking, Sasuke. Well, I guess I owe you a few explanations.”

The boy glared at him as he continued to pace on the water. Once Sasuke was comfortable, he began focusing on a silver bracelet- a gift their client Michi had given him after the mission. It was a way medical ninja learned to control chakra, and when she had heard about Team Seven’s training, she had eagerly given each of them one of the bracelets. 

Kakashi sighed and began. “I didn’t grow up with a family. By the time I was born, the Hatake had mostly petered out. It was just me and my father. He was a respected shinobi in our village, known as the White Fang, but on a mission he chose to save his comrades rather than complete the mission and most of the shinobi turned on him. It took a toll on him, and one day I came home to his dead body.”

Sasuke flinched. He had stopped pacing on the water, and distantly Kakashi was pleased to note that even with the waves he was standing steady.

“I was alone, but even though I was young I was still a shinobi, and I was determined to bring honor back to my family. I became engrossed in the rules, and only cared about getting stronger. Eventually, war broke out in the Land of Fire and two teammates joined my sensei and me.”

Kakashi gave a hallow laugh. “I thought they were beneath me, of course. And to a certain extent they were; I had graduated early from the academy and was called a genius. There was Noharu Rin, a medic. And Uchiha Obito. I hated him. He was loud and clumsy and always late. He hadn’t unlocked his Sharingan and was always trying to prove himself and pick fights with me.”

“He sounds like Naruto,” Sasuke muttered.

Kakashi nodded. “It’s uncanny. Just like Naruto he had his honor code and stuck with it, and was the only person to ever tell me that he thought my father had done the right thing. I had just become a jounin and we had a mission. Rin had been taken hostage and Obito refused to let leave her behind. I disagreed and he chose to try to save her with or without me. I changed my mind, but by then our paths had already been set before us. I lost my eye, and he gained his Sharingan. There was a cave where they were holding Rin, and when it started falling he shoved me out of the way.”

Sasuke’s head shot up and he stared at Kakashi. “In the Land of Fog. You shouted his name when you grabbed Naruto. When that cave was about to fall.”

Kakashi nodded. “Obito was crushed, completely on one side of his body. He gave me his Sharingan so he could see the future. We completed the mission and returned to Konoha. Your clan wasn’t thrilled, but it was actually your father and mother who stuck up for me.”

“My parents- my father- was okay with an outsider bearing the Sharingan?”

Kakashi chuckled. “Your mother was close friends with my sensei’s girlfriend. She was able to talk some sense into your father. I don’t know what she threatened him with to get him to agree but even back then he had a considerable sway in your clan. Plus, no one wanted to be on my sensei’s bad side and he made it very clear that ripping my eye out would make him unhappy.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

Kakashi stood up. “Let’s walk through the forest.”

Sasuke walked over to the pier- wobbling a little bit. He hopped on the pier and walked slowly enough that Kakashi could hobble beside him. As they walked through the forest, Kakashi began speaking again.

“A lot of thought is put into possible genin squads and their jounin sensei. Obviously, one of the reasons I was assigned to this squad particularly is the hope that as one of the only living users of the Sharingan that I could help you learn how to use it. I understand that reasoning. But it isn’t fair to expect you be able to replace dozens of mentors with one sensei.”

He turned and placed his hand on Sasuke’s shoulder. “I’m not an Uchiha, Sasuke. I didn’t want to come in and tell you how to use it because it’s your birthright. You deserve to discover it for yourself and then I would train you in it.”

Sasuke raised his eyebrow. “That seems like a really bad idea. Aren’t you worried I’d develop bad habits or accidentally ruin it or something.”

Kakashi stared at him. “Letting you go off and learn something on your own doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be paying attention.”

“You let Naruto and Sakura almost die because they ran off into the Forest of Death.”

Kakashi opened his mouth to argue and then shut it again. “Those two are menaces to themselves and everybody around them and I’m relying on you to keep them alive.”

Maybe it was just wishful thinking but Kakashi could swear that behind Sasuke’s annoyance there was a flicker of something else. He was proven right when a second later Sasuke asked, “What ended up happening to Rin?”

“That,” Kakashi said, “is a conversation for a different heart-to-heart in the woods. Let’s go gather your teammates. There’s an A-rank ninja out for blood so we really should start preparing.”

It seemed Sasuke had used his word quota for the day, so the walk back to Tazuna’s house was quiet. The calm before the storm that greeted him when they arrived. Naruto and Sakura were outside the front door, playing catch with a shuriken.

Upon noticing the arrival of Sasuke and Kakashi, they perked up. Naruto had forgotten the shuriken coming after him and it grazed his nose as he waved at Kakashi and Sasuke. “Hey guys, Sakura and I have been doing some thinking about that eyebrowless freak and his mask friend since they’re still alive. And we’ve come up with a great idea!”

“Oh yeah?” Kakashi asked. “What is it?”

“Gato is a dick!” Sakura shouted, unable to contain herself. “We were able to get the whole story out of the bridge builder on why Inari is such a little jerk. Did you know that Gato had his dad killed just because he raised hope and didn’t let the town flood?”

“And,” Naruto added, “they’ve totally ruined the town. Sakura and I decided to take a look around and everyone is starving. We’ve got to help them!”

“So what were you guys thinking?” Kakashi asked. 

“Plant a community garden,” Naruto said.

“Kill Gato,” Sakura said.

“Well, both those ideas,” Naruto pointed out. “But the point is we should do something.”

“Hmmm,” Kakashi thought. “Well we don’t have seeds and there’s not really great soil around here. On the other hand, killing Gato is also not feasible. We don’t even know where he lives or how many body guards he has. I think our best bet is still to protect the bridge builder as he builds the bridge. After that we can worry about any loose ends.’

While both Naruto and Sakura looked somewhat disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to kill Gato, they seemed undeterred. Sakura smiled sweetly. “I guess that makes sense,” she said, “but I hope you don’t mind we kind of promised Inari and some of his friends that we’d teach them how to be ninja.”

“What?”

“He was being a jerk,” Naruto defended. “All this talk about how Gato can send his henchmen to do anything to anyone. We told him we’d teach him how to defend themselves. You know, just some basics like punches and kunai and stuff.”

Kakashi stared at the two of them in disbelief. “You knew I wouldn’t agree with Gato, you just wanted this to seem reasonable.”

“It really is,” Sakura said. “We have maybe a week before Zabuza is well enough to attack again. That gives us enough time to maybe each learn something new, but it would have to be pretty basic. Our best bet would be to learn or practice some of the skills we’ve already gained or that all shinobi should know. We can practice whatever you have for us most of the day, but we can teach the villagers some of the basics for an hour or two. It’ll be good review, especially for Naruto.”

“If any of them run off and join the Hidden Mist Village, it’s going to be you two who answer to the Hokage, not me,” Kakashi finally conceded. “Meanwhile, I’m going to show you what I want the three of you to spend the rest of your time working on this week.”

He slowly walked back to the woods they had just been at. First he motioned Naruto over to a couple of trees. “Naruto, your taijutsu is wild and you broadcast your moves long before you enact them.” Bending down he drew a line in the ground next to the tree and slapped a seal onto it. “I placed a barrier seal here. No part of you will be able to cross this line. I want you to punch this tree until it comes down.” He tossed him a roll of wrappings. “You’ll need these.”

Naruto stared at the tree. It was several feet thick, though not nearly as large as the trees surrounding Konoha. “Kakashi-Sensei, this will take thousands of punches.”

Kakashi nodded. “If you finish that we’ll do the same with kicks. My rival taught me this trick. You’ll learn to focus your power in small movements.”

“Okay, Sensei.”

Kakashi turned to Sasuke. “With your sharingan you’ll be able to learn jutsu easily. That doesn’t mean you will learn to use them correctly. We’re going to work more on your chakra control, but this time we’re going to try to throw in a little bit of elemental control. You’ve already mastered several fire jutsu, so we’ll start with that. He grabbed a leaf from a tree and using a small fire jutsu was able to singe it in the middle. “Keep the burning from spreading to the outside of the leaf. This is an ancient technique, proceeding even jutsu. If you mess up just start over. Of course, learning to limit your jutsu to just smoldering a part of a leaf will be a good exercise in control too.”

As Sasuke and Naruto began to get to work, Sakura stepped forward. “I want to learn a genjutsu,” she said immediately. 

Kakashi nodded. “There’s a couple good beginner genjutsu, but here’s one that can be suitable for battle. It doesn’t change anything, it just slows down how fast the victim sees it. Usually no more than a few milliseconds, but in a fast paced battle it can make a difference. Be careful with it though, for exceptional shinobi it can give them a warning since they may be able to better see attacks. It’s called Demonic Illusion: Sluggish Mind Technique.”

Sakura nodded and it was obvious that she was excited to begin. He taught her the hand signs. “There’s one more genjutsu I’ll teach you: the Gate of Heaven Technique. This is a good learning genjutsu, since you may not have the chance to practice the other one on someone. It’s a genjutsu that is placed on oneself, and it is often used for meditation or focusing purposes. It helps you learn to tweak genjutsu as well as learn to recognize them.” 

“Awesome, thanks Kakashi!” Sakura said. She sat down and quickly began practicing her hand signs. 

Mentally patting himself on the back for a job well done, Kakashi worked his way back to the house. He was tired and it was finally time to sleep.

_-_-_-_

The next day, Kakashi had the fortune of witnessing the first ever Team Seven led Land of Waves Shinobi Clinic. To his surprise, it wasn’t a disaster, especially not by Naruto and Sakura standards. Inari had only managed to round up four other children. He had whispered to Sakura and Naruto at the beginning that two of the children didn’t even tell their parents where they were going, as no one wanted their kids to stand up to Gato.

Naruto, whose hands were scratched and bruises, demonstrated how to punch and Kakashi was surprised to note that his technique already seemed to be better. Instead of having the kids punch on trees, he had gathered up bags of leaves and grasses to make individual punching bags for each of the kids. 

Sasuke had been grudgingly dragged into Naruto and Sakura’s plan and had carved and painted targets onto trees. He showed the students how to throw a kunai and shuriken and let them take turns aiming for the target. He was a shockingly good teacher, willing to bend down and correct the mistakes they made. 

Sakura explained the basics of chakra, and though they didn’t spend much time on what she taught them, she did go over how to recognize their own chakra, something that could potentially be useful to them in the future. She taught the basics that they needed to know- vital points of the body and the different villages and their specialties ‘our sensei learned the hard way- don’t play around in the water if you’re facing someone from the hidden mist!’ Naruto explained the basics of traps and some of the ninja tools.

By the time the third hour was up, they had five confused but excited children on their hands. “We’ll work with you again tomorrow,” Sakura promised. 

After the last child left, it was business as usual. The three genin went back to their individual tasks like there had never been an interruption. 

The next day continued much like the first, though the number of children at the training session had grown to nine. The four newcomers admitted that their parents didn’t want them going, but Inari had managed to convince them. While the nine children would never be able to stand up to any ninja, watching them build confidence was very impressive. It was also obvious that they had been practicing even when it wasn’t technically their training time.

Inari had improved the most. Through sheer determination he was able to hit the bullseye more often than not and was the only one who had come close to being able to feel his latent chakra (though admittedly he wasn’t sure if it was that or if it was just his stomach grumbling because he had trained through lunch).

The next day it was decided that Sasuke would begin to guard Tazuna on the bridge. Though he had not mastered his leaf exercise, the amount of chakra it used was minimal and it could technically be done anywhere. The morning before he left, Naruto presented him with a bag of leaves that he had collected while filling up more punching bags. Sasuke had rolled his eyes and grabbed the bag, but Kakashi could swear that he saw a slight smile on the boy’s face. 

That day was also a breakthrough for Naruto. He had managed to punch through the tree. Giddily, he had shown Kakashi the splintered stump where the tree once stood. Kakashi nodded in approval and watched as his grin fell off his face as he watched his next task. 

Kakashi stood in front of another tree and put the tip of his fingers against the bark, before, without moving his hand any further back, he punched and a large dent appeared in the tree.

“Fingers length away, punch until the tree falls down. Remember, use each arm. We don’t want you getting lopsided.”

Naruto nodded, even though it was obvious that he was horrified by the prospect, and began his practice. As he walked to where Sakura was practicing, Kakashi could hear Naruto cursing his name. Aw, it really warmed a sensei’s heart.

Sakura had made excellent progress. She had perfected the Gate of Heaven Technique and when she placed Sluggish Mind Technique on him, his only complaint was that she had muffled the sound, an obvious sign there was a genjutsu present. 

The next morning, it was obvious that Naruto had stayed out all night. Inari, who was at the table scarfing himself shrugged in sync with Sakura when Kakashi mentioned that. “You’ve really inspired him with the tree,” Inari said. “You should have seen the way he was glaring at that tree at practice.”

“He’ll be fine,” Sakura agreed with her mouth full as she casually read over a scroll she had packed. “He does this sometimes so it’s no big deal.”

Sasuke, who had just walked into the kitchen scowled and quickly left, leaving the door to slam shut behind him. 

_-_-_-_

Sasuke was determined to enjoy the relative peace of the woods as he walked through them, since he would either be dragging Naruto’s frozen, dead body back to the house or would have to deal with an annoying, alive Naruto. 

It was nice; mornings in the Land of Waves were cool as a breeze blew in from the sea. Soon, the sun would rise and bring with it heat and humidity. It was odd being in a forest that wasn’t filled with the giant trunks of ancient chakra trees. In the forests of Konoha, you could find yourself in an area as dark as night simply because the leaves were so thick. It was also louder there, you could almost hear the constant hum of chakra. Here it was quieter and lighter.

Ahead of him, he saw a figure. Immediately, it was obvious that it wasn’t Naruto. It was a woman, taller than even him and carrying a basket. She was beautiful, but he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. She wasn’t any of the villagers in the area around Tazuna’s house- he had made sure to learn them. Her kimono was nicer than pretty much any of the clothes he had seen the villagers wear, but he supposed that at one time Wave had been a prosperous nation. It was only recently that Gato had taken over.

She didn’t seem like a threat though, and so he asked, “have you seen a short blond kid around here? Kind of looks like an idiot.”

She stopped and gave him a once over. “I have. Is he a friend of yours?”

“He’s my teammate. I’m looking for him.”

“I was collecting herbs when I came across him asleep on the ground. He must have been working very hard. He has a very unique dream. “

Sasuke sighed. “That idiot. You said he’s right over there?” He pointed in the direction she had come from. “And he was passed out when you found him.”

She stared at him. “You care about him.”

“Look, I don’t have time for this. I need to go before he does something else idiotic and gets himself killed.”

She smiled and nodded. “He’s in a clearing straight ahead. Don’t worry, he is fine. It was nice to meet you. I’m sure that like him, you too will grow strong.” She then began to walk along the path.

Sasuke stayed still and watched her until she disappeared. Something about her- about that whole encounter- was weird. Her questions had seemed out of place, but somehow he felt like he had just passed some sort of test.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sasuke's training is basically from Avatar the Last Airbender and Naruto's training is basically from Kill Bill. This arc will probably keep with the serious tone but don't worry! We'll have fun again before the chuunin exams hit.


	6. Land of Waves, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I've begun actual-working for a few months now and my laptop is kind of broken (?). It works as well as it has but it's pretty hard to type new things and I've been busy so my apologies.
> 
> Anyway another serious chapter. But we should start getting into some more fun stuff next chapter. I just really wanted to get a little bit of character development in here. Definitely not my best writing so in the next few months there's a solid chance I'll come by and edit it but I didn't want to keep you fine folk waiting any longer. I'm going to try to get into a schedule of at least one update a month so hopefully I'll see you guys again before June 12. HOPEFULLY
> 
> WHERE WE LAST LEFT OFF (AND FIC SUMMARY): Naruto and Sakura have been troublemaking best friends for years when Sasuke joins them as a member of Team Seven. Their genin exam involves them accidentally fighting low-level missing nin, their training involves them almost getting killed by overgrown insects, and their first C rank mission entailed a mysterious canyon, The Land of Fog. Now they're in the Land of Waves, and in usual Team Seven fashion nothing is going right. They face off against Zabuza and train. Sasuke has a nice conversation with Haku while looking for Naruto, and danger is on the horizon.

Naruto was in the clearing, and as usual he looked confused. On principal, Sasuke immediately walked up and punched him. “Idiot, did you forget about breakfast?”

He waited for Naruto to quit complaining before he offered him a hand to stand up. “Who was that girl? She said she talked to you.”

“I don’t know,” Naruto admitted. “But I can tell you this- he’s a boy!”

“Do I want to know how you even know that?”

“Ugh, gross Sasuke. I wouldn’t-not in the middle of a forest, you pervert! But he told me as he was leaving, strange huh?”

“I talked to him a little. There’s something weird about him. Have you seen him around the village at all? Have you seen anyone even wearing clothes that nice? And the way he held himself and walked...”

“What are you saying, Sasuke?”

“I think he was a shinobi. He was picking medicinal herbs?”

“Sasuke, I know what you’re thinking that that’s crazy. There’s no way that he’s the hunter-nin! He could have taken both of us out if he were, and he didn’t. All he did was talk to me about my dreams and goals and precious people. That doesn’t seem like someone who would align with that freak Zabuza, does it?”

“I don’t know,” Sasuke admitted. “But we need to talk to Kakashi-Sensei.”

When they arrived back at Tazuna’s house, Sakura and Kakashi were just finishing up breakfast. The four went into the room they had been sleeping and Naruto and Sasuke explained everything that they had seen. Kakashi-Sensei’s eye narrowed, but when they had finished talking he shrugged.

“It does seem suspicious,” he said. “It certainly makes sense, but not why he left you alive if he was Zabuza’s helper. My dogs could track the scent- it would be possible to trace it and maybe hope that Zabuza is still out of commission, but that’s risky. I say that starting tomorrow we assume that they will attack the bridge and we do our best to prepare.”

“I don’t like this, Sensei,” Sakura said. “We know Zabuza’s skillset, or at least part of it, but this other ninja is a total mystery. I mean, all we know is that he’s good at using senbon. That’s not a whole lot, you have to admit.”

“It isn’t,” Kakashi conceded. “But very rarely do ninja enter a battle even knowing who the enemy they will face is. And besides, I have total faith in you three. You’ve all come a long way.”

The three grinned, but Kakashi cut that short. “Come on,” he said. “you’ve come a long way but there’s still a lot longer to go. Let’s do some last minute training.”

_-_-_-_

This was not where Sasuke wanted to be. From his position near the bridge builder, he could see Naruto and Sakura inside the ice mirrors, but he couldn’t clearly see what was happening or the condition of his teammates.

The day had been just like his previous days on the bridge, though Naruto and Sakura were also there this time and brining their own brand of annoyance. It had been Sakura who had first noticed Zabuza and his apprentice’s presence, and she had managed to draw first blood.

The fake hunter-nin had began to battle Sakura, and of course Naruto had been right there. Sasuke clenched his teeth and his hands. He knew that that the mission was important- the most important- but being relegated to bodyguard as Naruto and Sakura fought for their lives inside the mirrors felt wrong.

_-_-_-_

The fake hunter-nin was faster than both her and Naruto, that much was obvious. Even worse, he was toying with them. Both Sakura and Naruto were covered in scratches from the senbon, but none of their wounds were even close to being lethal, or even debilitating.

In these mirrors, Sakura and Naruto were at a distinct disadvantage. Naruto was holding the ninja off, though Sakura knew that even for Naruto producing wave after wave of shadow clones wasn’t a sustainable technique. She had to focus. Coming up with a plan was her job. (Improvising when the plan inevitably when wrong was Naruto’s. That was how they had worked since the very beginning.)

As Naruto’s clones put up a valiant effort, she inched closer to the (hopefully) original Naruto. “We need to figure something out, and fast,” she whispered to him. “I have no idea how to fight this guy!”

Naruto stared at her for a second. “Sakura,” he said at least, pausing to summon a new bunch of clones to continue the fight. He was already panting and sweating. “We can’t see the guy, but you were able to sense them before they even got here- that’s how you grazed him earlier, right?”

“That was just instinct,” she sputtered.

Naruto shook his head. “I don’t think so, Sakura. You’re always able to tell when I’m around and you’re so good at controlling chakra and you could tell when the jounin were coming so that we knew to hide and you were so affected by the fog and remember that time you got mad at Ino and said you could fight her with your eyes closed and you almost won?”

Sakura stared at Naruto, quickly ducking out of the way of a senbon. “Naruto,” she hissed. “People don’t just decide that they’re sensors in the middle of a battle!”

“Why not?” he asked. “Come on Sakura, you can do this!”

“Whatever, I’ll try. But what about you? I may be able to kind of tell where he is but how are you going to avoid becoming a pincushion.”

Naruto seemed frustrated. “My reaction times aren’t bad, but I can’t see where they’re coming from until it’s too late. I’m just going to keep making shadow clones. Between the two of us, we should be able to tire him out, right?”

The masked ninja seemed to hear that and in response sent senbon flying which grazed each of them across their cheeks. “The longer we are in here, the stronger I grow,” he said. Sakura tactfully didn’t mention that there was no way that was the case- it was a jutsu obviously and probably not an easy one to maintain. But he did have a point- his advantage did grow as they became more and more injured.

“Naruto,” Sakura said as she wiped blood off her cheek. “I have a plan, but it’s risky.”

“Heh, Sakura that’s never stopped us before.”

“I’m serious,” she growled. “I’m going to put you in a genjutsu for a little bit. We need to know how his jutsu works, okay? I’ll dispel it in a little bit.”

“Go for it, Sakura.”

She took a deep breath and began creating hand signs. “Demonic Illusion: Sluggish Mind Technique.”

As she expected, Naruto didn’t look like he noticed any difference- her friend was hopeless at detecting genjutsu. “Let me know what you see, Naruto,” she called. “We have to figure out how the mirrors work if we have any hope of beating them!”

Sakura, for her part, did her best to help Naruto dodge any of the senbon the masked ninja sent their way, but it was still nearly impossible to see them. After a few minutes and too many senbon pricks, Naruto nodded. “I think I’ve got it, Sakura,” he said. “He can go from mirror to mirror- but it’s so fast I can hardly see it, even with your genjutsu.”

Sakura bit her lip before reaching over to grab Naruto’s shoulder, releasing him from the genjutsu.

“Using a genjutsu on your teammate,” the ninja said. “An interesting tactic, maybe even brilliant. My attacks cannot be seen by human eyes, but you used a genjutsu that would slow it down and make it comprehendible. However, it will not do you any good.”

“Naruto! He goes from mirror to mirror. That’s got to be the key to this. Mirrors rely on light, right?”

“I mean, I guess?”

“Well they do. Well if there’s something blocking the line of sight between the mirrors, then he may not be able to teleport! Do you have any of your smoke bombs?”

“Ha, like you even have to ask.” Naruto grinned and that was the last thing Sakura saw before smoke clouded the entire area of the mirrors. It was soon accompanied by loud bangs- Naruto had apparently thought it seemed fit to include firecrackers.

The area inside the mirrors became filled with the caustic smoke of the smoke bombs. It was impossible to see through- at least Sakura couldn’t see anything and she certainly hoped that the masked ninja could not either. She closed her eyes, trying to concentrate enough to get a since where both Naruto and their enemy was.

Reaching out she grabbed Naruto’s hand and they sprinted for the edge of the ice mirrors. There was no way they could win this fight in the ninja’s home terrain. The ninja spoke to them. “Trying to neutralize my mirrors is another smart move, but it won’t be good enough.”

A burst of wind exploded from the side and cleared the smoke away. “My command over the ice of winter includes the wind that chills to the bone. You cannot escape.”

Sakura took stock of her and Naruto- they were both out of breath and despite the cold there was sweat running down their faces. And blood. Each of them had been pierced and grazed by so many of the senbon. So far, none were in vital organs- or even pressure points- so while annoying and painful they didn’t need to be worried about. But the pain itself from them was exhausting, and it was only a matter of time before the ninja got sick of playing with them.

She gritted her teeth. Whether she liked it or not, she and Naruto had to stay on the defensive and hope that Kakashi-sensei would be able to take down Zabuza.

-_-_-_-_

Zabuza had managed to slip right behind him, and if not for Kakashi the bridge builder would have been dead. Sasuke scowled as he tried to see through the mist- maybe if he was able to sense chakra or even improve his hearing he wouldn’t feel so defenseless but the fact of the matter was that while his vision was superior, these two jounin were so far out of his league. It made him want to shake with rage.

While he couldn’t see Zabuza and Kakashi’s fight, he could hear what they had to say. Zabuza was confident. Cocky, actually. Especially for someone who had nearly been beaten by Kakashi just a week ago, and while he had a decent understanding of the sharingan, it was in no way complete.

But more so then being confident in his own skills, Zabuza was confident in his apprentice’s. He seemed mildly surprised that Naruto and Sakura were still alive, but unworried.

Kakashi had told him to stay with Tazuna. But there was no way he could actually do anything to protect the bridge builder should Kakashi fall.

_Those who break the rules are trash._

He turned to Tazuna. He didn’t say anything but Tazuna nodded gravely. “Go, help your friends. I’ll be fine for now.”

_But those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash._

Sasuke sprinted towards the ice mirrors. As he came up to them he stopped. “Maybe there was a way that he could help from the outside. As he investigated the mirrors, he tried to plunge a kunai into it. Even on the outside, the mirrors were as hard as diamonds and there was no affect. It looked like he would have to go inside.

He flared his chakra, hoping that Sakura and Naruto would be able to pick up on it and quickly ran inside to stand next to them.

“Nice of you to join us,” Naruto said. There was a large smile on his face. “The party is really about to get started in here.”

“We were beginning to think you wouldn’t make it,” Sakura added.

He eyed them over. They did not look good. He’d be shocked if they weren’t running on empty in chakra and from the looks of it they were close to being physically exhausted. He turned to the mask ninja. “How does this guy work?”

“He goes from mirror to mirror incredibly fast,” Sakura said. “We can’t track him but maybe with your Sharingan?”

Sasuke nodded tightly. “I need to get used to his speed. I need you to draw him out so I can see how he moves myself.”

“Alright,” Naruto said, standing up straighter. “I’m on this. Shadow clone jutsu!”

About twelve Naruto clones appeared, each racing towards a mirror. He was able to watch as the masked ninja flew from mirror to mirror, easily taking out clones and sending senbon flying at all three members of team seven.

Sasuke grabbed Sakura and pushed Naruto out of the way as he jumped up to dodge the senbon. “I can see him,” he said. “Naruto, I’m going to need you to make as many clones as you can.”

Naruto did so, but this time the ninja seemed to recognize their plan, choosing instead to simply dodge the clones’ attacks and purely lay offensive assaults to the three genin. It was after this onslaught of attacks, where Sasuke was able to swing Naruto out of the way but watched as Sakura took several of the senbon that he realized something.

“I can see the attacks but I can’t protect both of you,” he told them.

“We tried escaping, but he’s so quick he sends us flying back,” Sakura said. She was huffing loudly. While she had the makings of a future chakra sensor, for now she had exhausted herself trying to focus on the other ninja’s chakra.

Sasuke eyed her. “I think I may have a plan. We need to get you out of here and defend the bridge builder. You’ll be much more effective out in the mist than I was.” He whispered the plan to Naruto and Sakura and they nodded.

“I’m done playing games,” the hunter coolly said. “This time, I’ll be aiming for your vital spots.”

“NOW!” Sasuke shouted.

Naruto summoned clones while Sasuke picked Sakura up and swung her around, using chakra in his arms to throw her towards one of the gaps in the mirrors. Quickly, his hands flew through the signs for a fire jutsu and sent it after the ninja. The ninja easily dodged it and took out his senbon, throwing them straight for Sakura’s heart.

They connected and suddenly leaves exploded into the air, floating gently down. About fifty meters outside the perimeter of mirrors, Sakura laid crumpled, right where the bag of leaves Naruto had given Sasuke had laid.

She slowly got to her feet, panting even harder now but without the fatal senbon the ninja had to tried to attack her with. She made slight eye contact with Sasuke and gave him a victory sign before she dashed over to where Tazuna was standing, still unharmed.

“Your team,” the ninja said to Sasuke. “You all would have become very strong one day. It is a shame that I cannot let that happen, for I also have a goal and I will see it through.”

The most recent round of shadow clones had seemed to use the last of Naruto’s strength, as he suddenly fell backwards. Sasuke rushed over, looking for a senbon that he had missed but there were none.

“He’s reached his limit,” the ninja said.

It was annoying, to fight and also have to carry Naruto everywhere. But deep down Sasuke couldn’t help but be relieved. At the rate the ninja was attacking, there was no way Naruto and Sakura would have lasted long. In a corner of his mind that wasn’t concerned with the battle he could imagine it- approaching the ice mirrors after Kakashi had killed both Zabuza and this ninja, only to find both Naruto and Sakura’s corpses spread across the ground.

He quickly shook that thought off. Sakura was protecting Tazuna and Naruto was starting to wake up. Sasuke himself had gone from just singing the coat of the hunter-nin to landing a kunai in his arm.

Of course, the ninja only needed to use one hand for seals and to throw senbon (how could anyone create seals with just one hand? He had thought was impossible).

As Naruto woke up, he was able to dodge as Sasuke shouted directions to him, which freed up a lot of his energy. After several minutes, however, it was obvious that Naruto was slowing down.

“Don’t pass out again, Loser,” he muttered. “I can’t keep protecting you.”

“Then don’t,” Naruto groaned as he fell backwards again.

The best defense was a good offense, and so Sasuke grabbed several shuriken out of Naruto’s pouch to replenish his own waning supply and sent them and jutsu after the ice nin in quick succession. If the ninja was too busy dodging he wouldn’t be able to attack himself, and Sasuke could wait until Naruto was awake again to try to find a way to get his teammate out. Naruto wasn’t as hopeless with the substitution jutsu as he had been with clones, but Sasuke highly doubted that he could pull it off in his current state.

When the ninja was finally able to attack again, Sasuke was horrified to find that he wasn’t under attack. Instead it was Naruto, who was lying still where he had passed out. Pushing chakra to his feet, Sasuke raced towards the other boy.

I have to make it in time. I have to get there.

As he sprinted he saw that it would be a close call, but he would probably be able to beat the ninja to Naruto. He had to make sure though, so he pushed even more chakra to his feet, eyes on the ninja when he was suddenly shoved back.

Naruto, who was unable to see the hunter nin but had somehow seen Sasuke had risen to a crouch and sent all of his chakra to his hands, pushing Sasuke back with a strength he had been unable to match.

Senbon flew and connected with Naruto. In Naruto.

Two punctured into his chest, right where his lung was. In the back of his mind, Sasuke knew he would never forget that sound.

But in the present, Naruto coughed blood and Sasuke stared up at him from where he had fallen. “Why did you do that?” he sputtered. “You…YOU MORON!”

“I…I heal better than you,” Naruto said. “I told you, you didn’t have to protect me. And if…he took you out…he would just kill me- yo-you’re the only one who can win here, Sasuke.” He coughed again but looked resolved. “We ha-have to protect the Land of Waves….they need this bridge. And we can’t ….let them take out th-th-th-the bridge builder.” His words were quiet and his breaths were wheezy. Sasuke knew what was coming but wouldn’t-couldn’t- believe it.

“No,” Sasuke growled. “You don’t get to do this, Naruto.” That injury- if there was a medical-ninja nearby then they would probably be able to heal it. And Naruto would probably survive for a little bit without medical attention, but in order to do that he would need to finish this battle soon.

Naruto had sunk back to his knees, wheezing and coughing more blood. Sasuke roared and ran to attack the medical ninja. It had become a hand-to-hand match between the two. Jutsu and senbon alike were forgotten as the two fought with nothing but their most primal instincts.

Between punches, Sasuke spoke. “He cares what happens to this country. He cares about the people here and he wants to protect them. I don’t care. We’ve been lied to about this mission the whole time.” He paused. “He’s going to die, but you can stop it. You can put him into one of those death like states. Do it. And then we can finish are fight. It won’t affect your mission, by the time he wakes up one way or another it’ll be over.”

The ninja jumped back and looked up. “How do you know I won’t just finish him off,” he said.

Sasuke too stopped fighing. “You could have beaten both him and Sakura way earlier,” he said. “You didn’t start doing lethal attacks until much later.” He paused. “You didn’t kill either of us in the forest.”

“He’s precious to you.”

“I don’t want him to die. He can’t let go of his dream.”

The masked ninja nodded and cautiously stepped forward. He held his senbon and though Sasuke couldn’t see his eyes, he knew that he was being tracked. He too held a kunai, ready for if the masked ninja double-crossed him. He was confident in his assessment that this ninja did not want to kill Naruto- if what Naruto had hinted at was enough, the two had had a long conversation in the forest.

The ninja bent down and gently slid a senbon into Naruto’s neck. Sasuke flinched as he watched it go in. Despite his confidence, it was chilling to see an enemy so close to his comrade, and watching him purposefully use weapons on Naruto went against every instinct that he had.

Once finished, the other ninja stood up and looked at Sasuke. “His heart rate and breathing will slow down. So long as someone finds him and gets him to a medic, he should be fine. Now, let’s battle. Two of the last bearers of our respective kekkei genkai.”

Sasuke nodded and as one the two attacked each other. The other ninja was still able to use his mirrors to move at a speed but Sasuke could see that he was slowing down, getting tired. They exchanged blows several times, neither fast enough to get an edge over the other.

Two ninja, each one of the last of their bloodlines indeed. They were nearly matched in speed and each time they exchanged blows Sasuke felt like he could understand how this ninja had grown up. Like him, alone. But with no purpose.

It was Sasuke’s own jutsu which ultimately proved to be his downfall. As he breathed out his giant fireball jutsu, the sheer brightness of it meant that, just for a second, he was unable to see where the other ninja was. The ninja took advantage of that, and as the fireball sped towards it target he felt a cluster of senbon hit him from all sides.

As he fell, he stared at Naruto’s form. And right before his eyes closed, he saw Naruto’s snap open. For just a second, their eyes met.

It didn’t matter- even if he was conscious there was no way Naruto would be able to move, and Sasuke was certain that the masked ninja wouldn’t go back on their deal. Naruto would be spared and maybe that would make it all worth it.

“Don’t…don’t give up on your dream, moron,” he sputtered out and let his eyes finally fall shut.

_-_-_-_

Sasuke did expect to wake up, but even if he had he did not expect to wake up to the seen that he did. The first thing he saw was Sakura- her face was pale and tears were streaming down it as she gently tried to remove senbon from his body.

Her focus, as usual, was intense and he was certain that she had not realized that he was awake- she may not have even realized he was alive. In that moment the fact he was alive was one that he was still grappling with. Maybe it had been a mistake on the part of the fake hunter ninja, or maybe it had his plan all along.

Either way, he selfishly closed his eyes again. There were so many things about being alive that he hadn’t noticed before. His heart beat pumping in his head, his lungs filling with air, even the way that his leg had fallen asleep.

He thought that it would be nice to just lay there, but deep down he knew that it wouldn’t be fair to Sakura. She was crying over him, and maybe Naruto.

Naruto.

His eyes shot back open. “Sakura,” he murmured. At once she turned to him and a grin split her face.

“You’re okay,” she sobbed and to his horror she started crying even harder, burying her face in his chest. “You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay.”

She was…making it hard to breath. Sasuke was pretty sure it wasn’t her intention, but nonetheless it was the result. More so than that, he had to know what had happened.

“Na…ruto.” He choked out.

Her eyes widened and for a second he felt nothing but dread. But then she smiled gently at him. “The big idiot’s alright,” she said. “Don’t worry. It’s…kind of a long story and I don’t really actually know what happened. But he’s fine and Haku jumped in front of one of Kakashi Sensei’s moves which was really cool, by the way, and then Gato showed up and well….we can explain later. I’m just really glad you’re alright, Sasuke.”

With Sakura’s help, he stood up. In the distance he saw Naruto and Kakashi-Sensei and a whole group of people. He could see that several bodies were scattered across the bridge.

Sakura called out to Naruto, shouting that Sasuke was alive and Sasuke smiled, giving Naruto a lazy wave. Naruto returned with an enthusiastic wave of his own and seemed to take a step towards them when the crowd that had gathered seemed to start moving towards something.

It stopped suddenly, and Sasuke could just make out that behind that crowd was another, even bigger crowd of people. Suddenly, Naruto and Kakashi both seemed to multiply and within seconds the first group of people were running right past him, Sakura, and Tazuna. Sakura, ever faithful to her job, stepped in front of Tazuna and eyed them as they ran past and onto the boat.

“Those were Gato’s goons,” she explained. “It looks like they were scared by the villagers gathering together. And look! Inari’s leading them!” She looked like a proud mother, but her expression quickly sobered.

In the distance, he could see that Kakashi was slowly pulling the weapons out of the back of a body, and began carrying the body over to another one. It began to snow, and the crowd fell silent as they watched the two figures, until finally Kakashi stepped away from the two and next to Naruto.

After a few more minutes, Naruto walked over to him and Sakura, and it was obvious that the loser had been ugly crying. His face was wet and eyes were puffy and snot dripped down his nose. He took one look at the two of them and pulled them each into a crushing hug.

Sakura returned it with both arms, wrapping Sasuke up between his two teammates. They stood like that for a few moments until, as one Naruto and Sakura seemed to start laughing. It was probably an expression of adrenaline, but hidden from the world in the arms of his teammates, Sasuke smiled.

 

_-_-_-_

The next order of business was burying the dead and then they were in desperate need of some sleep. Using shadow clones, Naruto and Kakashi dug graves on a hill and placed Zabuza and Haku into them. For Gato and his men, they dug one large grave. Kakashi resolved that they would come back later to finish it, but for now the team needed rest.

Almost like zombies they trailed to Tazuna’s house, waving tiredly at villagers who lined their path and cheered as they walked back. Once in the house they found Tsunami who was in the kitchen working on a large meal, and Inari who was taping the photo of his father back into the family portrait.

He gave them a grin which Naruto and Sakura returned, before they stumbled upstairs and onto their futons. Within minutes, all three genin from Team Seven were snoring. Kakashi watched them for a few minutes before he too found his bed and quickly fell asleep.

They awoke the next day, and after Kakashi finished preparing the graves of Haku and Zabuza, Team Seven came to give their final respects to their two enemies. Sasuke still wasn’t entirely sure what had happened when he had passed out. Obviously Naruto had made new friends and if Sakura and Naruto’s impassioned speech about what it meant to be a ninja was anything to go by those two had certainly gotten a lot more out of the battle than he did.

But then, he remembered pleading with his enemy in a panic to save his teammate and thought that maybe that wasn’t quite true.

As they walked back from the graves, Sakura turned to Kakashi. “What’s going to happen to the Land of Waves now?” She asked.

It was Naruto who answered it, a large grin on his face. “We’re gonna fix it, of course!” And suddenly Sasuke had another bad feeling.


End file.
